Bureau Agent Potter
by NHunter
Summary: Due to an accident, Harry comes in contact with a small green gem and it forever changes his life. Probably for the better... Now a strong mage, he will walk his life side by side with the newest generation of Aces of TSAB. This is the story of his (mis)adventures. Rated M for occasional cynical realism and other not-for-everyone stuff.
1. The once lost gem

**Title**: Bureau Agent Potter  
><strong>Author<strong>: NHunter aka N.H. aka 夜狩猟家 aka 灰色天使  
><strong>Genre<strong>: General, Adventure, some hints of Romance later on  
><strong>Rating<strong>: M = NC-17  
><strong>Warnings<strong>: AU; Crossover; Some violence; Possible lemons later on; Crazy author...

* * *

><p><strong><em>Disclaimer<em>**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><strong>AN<strong>: I will be adjusting the ranks of some TSAB characters within this story to make the relation between the rank and the function within the Bureau closer to what we're are used to. Thus, some characters might get demoted by a rank or two. That, however, should not have much impact on the Nanoha-verse plots, when I get there.

Also, given that I start around a year and a half before A's time, it will be a few chapters before canon characters of Nanoha will start showing up. Bear with me here...

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his invaluable help in getting this story rolling.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter I: The once lost gem**

Harry sighed. Ever since Ron's unfortunate attempt to give him a call a few days ago, his summer went from tolerably-bad to awful. Uncle Vernon had been raging over being disturbed by freaks for an hour that day, and the green-eyed almost-teen wizard ended up with a few new bruises thanks to that. At least Hedwig had avoided the walrus-man's wrath by virtue of not being there when it had happened...

After that day, the Dursleys decided that they wanted him out of their sight – and their house – for as much as possible. Thus, as soon as he was done with the daily portion of his chores, Harry was kicked out of the house. And he could do anything he wanted in the neighborhood for as long as he was back in time to cook them a dinner. This would have been almost like dreams come true for the dark-haired wizard if not for the fact that his cousin Dudley and his gang decided that their old game of 'Harry hunting' was still very much fun to play. In other words, as soon as the green-eyed Potter found himself on the streets of Little Whinging, he needed to hide or run for his life if he didn't want to end up as a punching bag for those four.

Unfortunately, it looked like lady Luck wasn't on his side today... The gang had found him when he was passing through the small local park and now they were trying to corner him in some blind alley and beat him up. And, no matter how much trouble Harry had believing it, those four had somehow managed to gain a few IQ points since the primary school. Now they were using something that could actually count as pack-hunt tactics.

And even though the green-eyed Potter himself was a little bit faster than his pursuers, today he found himself unable to lose them no matter what he tried. Even worse, the Dudley's gang was slowly cutting off possible routes to the more populated parts of the neighborhood he could follow. In the end, the dark-haired wizard found himself chased into a construction site on the edge of Little Whinging. And with no workers around – it was Saturday – there was no one who could prevent his cousin and the grunts that followed him around from being as violent with him as they wanted to.

Of course, Harry wasn't about to give up and accept the beating easily, but... Before long, a rock Piers threw managed to connect with the back of his head, sending him into the a hill of excavated dirt. And as the young Potter fell, his baggy T-shirt brushed a layer of dust off a small greenish gem than somehow ended in the said hill. Not that anyone noticed this. Yet.

Still believing that he might be able to escape from his pursuers, the green-eyed not-yet-teen tried to push himself back onto his feet. His was unsuccessful, though, as Dudley stepped onto his back, instantly pinning him back to the ground with his weight.

"We win, freak,.." The youngest Dursley spoke. "And, now, we will beat you up good!" With those words he pushed the dark-haired wizard-boy further into the dirt. And in doing so he also made the yet-to-be-noticed by anyone gem come in contact with the bare skin on the young wizard's chest.

Harry had but a briefest of the moments to wonder what was pushing against his skin before his world exploded in pain, as if someone had suddenly stuck a white-hot rod of barbed iron right through him. For Merlin knows how long the young Potter screamed and screamed his lungs out as scorching pain kept flooding his senses. Then, as another epicenter of pain exploded in his forehead, the blissful void of unconsciousness finally claimed him...

* * *

><p>As his mind was elsewhere, thanks to being tortured by <em>something<em>, Harry was completely unaware of the light-show that surrounded him. A moment after the gem came in contact with his skin, there was an explosion of bluish energy that threw Dudley and the rest of his friends away from him as if they weighted nothing. And as this 'explosion' was followed by unnaturally-colored lightnings striking in random directions from Harry's body, the gang decided to do a sensible thing and took flight.

The light-show, though, absolutely didn't care about them being there or not: more and more lightnings kept popping up while the freakish bluish aura surrounded the not-yet-teen wizard's body. Then, after maybe half a minute, the lightnings started turning darker as black smoke began seeping out of the scar on the young Potter's forehead.

As more and more of this unnatural smoke was forced out of the scar, it took a shape of something that looked roughly like a human head and tried to force its way back into the young wizard's body. But another explosion of bluish energy that happened then blew the miasmic entity away, where it lost all of its connections with its previous host and quickly disappeared in a horrible and inhuman soul-wrenching scream.

Even with the malicious spirit exorcised from the young Potter's body, the light-show surrounding his body didn't cease immediately. The bluish aura was still surrounding him and discharging lightnings in random directions every now and then. Though, by now, those began visibly losing their power, as if it was running out of juice. And, indeed, just a few minutes later the unnatural activity surrounding the unconscious wizard-boy stopped...

**~/ *** \~**

The universe was an interesting place, there was no denying it. At its core there was the so-called _Dimensional Space_, around which layers of reality were wrapped a lot like onion peels, with each such layer containing myriads of worlds that could support intelligent life. And since these layers appeared to be independent of each other, the chances were, two separate world could exist in what would otherwise be the same point in space.

Even more curious was the fact, first noted by a famous archeologist from Scrya clan, that such overlapping worlds tended to share many similarities. Geography, climate, species which lived on them, even history and culture could be very similar. Non-administered worlds 97 and 138 were a pair of such almost identical overlapping worlds: the only noticeable difference between them was the technological advancement with the former being roughly two decades ahead.

The Time-Space Administration Bureau, of course, was keeping an eye on both these worlds. Actually, performing a routine scans of non-administered world 138 was the last task the investigative spaceship "Leto" of TSAB had to complete before this round of patrolling the space was over and it could head back to its base.

And since the locals were neither space-faring, nor were they using any magitek, the main purposes of these scans were confirming the state of their advancement and locating any Relics or Lost Logia that might have been smuggled there by less than law-abiding elements.

At first, it looked like the scan won't show anything that wasn't seen in the twenty years this world had been under the observation. But then, suddenly, the ship's sensors picked up a powerful magical signature that signature quite very similar to the ones created by the Lost Logia when they released the discharges of their power.

"Warrant officer Aoba, report the situation!" The captain of the spaceship ordered as soon as the information about the detection of Lost Logia made it to the main screens.

"Aye, captain!" The said warrant officer replied. "It appears that we've detected a class four neutrally-aligned Lost Logia. Unfortunately, it is located on the side of the planet we can't see from here, so the readings aren't as accurate and I can't give you its precise location." A new image appeared on the main screen, showing a circle of hundred miles in radius overlaying the southern-most part of what the locals called the island of Great Britain.

"And what is its status?" The captain of investigative spaceship "Leto" asked then.

"The activation of presumed Lost Logia happened at 19:34 by inboard time." Warrant officer Aoba replied. "Currently its reading are decreasing. If the trend continues, we will lose its signal completely in two minutes." And, much like it was predicted, a little more than two minutes later the sensors of "Leto" could no longer pick up any traces of activity coming from the Lost Logia. Not sure what to do in this situation, the captain decided that he could consult his superiors for the best course of action.

The consultations were quite long, but in the end it was agreed that investigative spaceship "Leto" was to stay on the non-administered world 138's orbit until it located and collected the Lost Logia they had detected. The crew, of course, would be paid the overtime for their troubles.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry slowly drifted back to consciousness. His chest still hurt, though now it was a manageable pain, and he had a head-splitting headache along with something like a magical tar covering half of the right side of his face. There also was a bump on the back of his head where the rock Piers had thrown hit him, and his back was aching thanks to the stomp performed by Dudley... All in all, Harry felt like shit and the facts that he was both late for cooking Dursleys the dinner and that his entire front was covered in dirt weren't helping him any. But since he had no other option but to return back to Number Four and face whatever shitstorm the today's events ended up conjuring...

Indeed, the Dursleys – especially aunt Petunia – were far from happy with him. They ranted for well over an hour how he was an insolent, ungrateful little freeloader who was sucking money out of good hardworking people and gave nothing back. Eventually, though, the Dursley ran out of stuff to chastise his for and let him return to his room. Without dinner tonight and any meals tomorrow, of course. And with a strict warning not to dirty anything in their house if he didn't want to spend the next week without a crumb of bread to eat as well.

And while the threat of being left without food wasn't bothering him too much – he had quite a loot of edible things stashed in his room, after all – Harry decided that he indeed should drop by into the bathroom to finally wash the dirt off himself and change into clean(er) clothes. That, and he wanted to inspect what the hell had happened to his chest properly...

While he had already seen some of it, looking that much downwards was troublesome and, well, didn't provide him with the proper image. Still, the young Potter already knew that he now had a greenish diamond-shaped gem two thumb nails in width and double that in height stuck in his chest somewhere on the level of second or third ribs. But now, standing in front of a proper mirror, he could see that the gem was not just stuck in his chest – it looked more like it had partially merged into him as well. Merged as in it had taken roots into his body! And judging by the fact that the skin around this gem-thing was angry-red and partially even charred, such a merge wasn't exactly a natural thing...

But since it did look like he could do anything about this, Harry decided that he should worry about it only if the damn thing would cause him problems. He will ask madam Pomfrey about it when he got back to Hogwarts... Speaking of which, he still needed to finish his summer homework...

**~/ *** \~**

It was a couple of days since that incident, and aside from nagging pain in his chest that was still there, the newest addition to his body wasn't bothering Harry all that much. Especially since there were much more troublesome things he needed to deal with. Namely, aunt Marge and her loathsome bulldog Ripper were coming, and they were going to be staying at Number Four for the whole damn week!

Saying that Harry and his not-really-aunt Marge not got along was like saying that inferno was a little hot. And as much as the young Potter would have like to stay out of the woman's way for the whole duration of her visit, it was impossible. After all, he was the one who was going to be doing the majority of cooking. As well as all of the cleaning and many other chores... And, even worse, since she had absolutely no idea that he was a wizard attending Hogwarts, uncle Vernon had told his sister that he attended 'St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys', and forced the green-eyed now-teen into supporting that story as well.

Needless to say that despite Harry's best attempts to stay out of the woman's way and be as invisible as he could without his cloak, it only took a few hours since her arrival to Number Four before an inevitable happened. Aunt Marge began openly insulting his parents – with both Vernon and even Petunia agreeing with her – and the young Potter's already strained thanks to the aches he still had in his chest patience ran out. A shouting match of epic proportions ensued.

In the end, Vernon ended up beating his dark-haired nephew into a bloody mess to shut him up, and threw him and all of his things he could find out of the house. Probably hoping that the escaped criminal, Sirius Black, would find and kill him before Albus Dumbledore could use his freakishness to bring Harry back into their lives.

* * *

><p>Once the green-eyed boy-wizard had somewhat recovered, he dragged himself as far away from the Number Four as he could, running out of strength about four blocks away, in Magnolia Crescent. And as he rested against a low wall, he tried to think about what he should do next.<p>

He was neck deep in the problem, after all. Not only he was left without a roof over his head when a highly-dangerous criminal was at large, but he also was seemingly without any means of getting to Charing Cross Road in London, where the entrance into the Diagon Alley was located. After all, it was not like some cab driver would accept magical gold as a payment for his service. And even if he did, Harry was sure that the Ministry for Magic would see that as a deliberate breach in the Statue of Secrecy and punish him severely for it. And he would be breaching the very same Statue of Secrecy if he tried to fly his broomstick...

Trying to think of something, the young Potter tried to remember, whether there was any magical equivalent of taxi. But, alas, he couldn't recall anything about it. In the end, not wishing to spend a night alfresco, Harry decided that maybe he should actually break the magical world's law and fly his broom to London. Hopefully, they will forgive him for not wanting to become the next victim of a serial killer that had escaped from a prison.

Alas, even if he could fly his broom, it looked like he would have to abandon his other things: they were just too big and cumbersome for taking them along to be feasible. And Harry didn't want to make his situation even worse by using magic in the open... But it looked like he had no other option. So with a heavy sigh the green-eyed teen reached for his wand. Standing up, he raised his wand, pointing it at his trunk and... There was a loud bang as a strange triple-decker bus painted in purple appeared out of thing air and almost ran him over. The bus's door opened and a conductor in a purple uniform leaped out of it as he began to speak loudly to the night.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve-..." The conductor continued his speech as Harry stared at the bus somewhat dumbly, not really believing that he now could ride to London.

"C-Can you really go anywhere?" The young Potter asked carefully.

"Yep!" The conductor whose-name-was-Stan confirmed. "Anywhere as long as it is on this island." Well, it looked like Luck wasn't totally against him today, Harry though.

"How much would it be to get to London?" He asked then.

"Eleven Sickles." Said Stan. "But for fourteen you get 'ot chocolate, and for fifteen you get an 'ot water bottle an' a toofbrush in the color of your choice!" Quickly pulling a bag of coins out of his trunk, Harry got eleven silver coins out of it and handed them to the conductor. Then he dragged all of his belongings inboard and took a seat on the nearest empty ...bed? Yes, for whatever reason, there were no seats on this bus; instead, half a dozen brass bedsteads stood beside the curtained windows. "Take 'er away, Ern," Said Stan, sitting down in the armchair next to bus's driver.

There was another tremendous BANG, and the next moment Harry found himself flat on his bed, thrown backward by the speed of the Knight Bus. Pulling himself up, Harry stared out of the window and saw that they were now bowling along a completely different street.

There were three stops in not even remotely-close locations all over the England, before the purple monster of a magical bus finally arrived to London. And as soon as the it stopped, the young Potter did his best to vacate it, lest he had to suffer through another roller-coaster of a ride on it – the man behind the wheel apparently had absolutely no idea what the traffic regulations were.

Having watched the triple-decker bus disappear into the night with yet another loud BANG, Harry picked his things up and headed into the 'Leaky Caldron' pub, hoping that there will be a room for him to rent there. But as soon as he stepped into the pub that thought was forgotten as he almost ran into a portly little man in a long pinstriped cloak, who was accompanied by a couple of aurors. Due to how surprised by this Harry was, it took him a couple of seconds to recognize that man as Cornelius Fudge, the current Minister for Magic.

**~/ *** \~**

It has been ten days since the investigative spaceship "Leto" was ordered to remain on the orbit of the non-administered world 138 and search for the Lost Logia they had detected there. Alas, the artifact was completely silent ever since then, to the point where some thought that it wasn't even on the planet anymore, despite the fact that it couldn't have left it without them noticing it.

And since the Lost Logia wasn't showing any activity ever since that brief surge of magical power ten days ago, they had to manually search for it by deploying the mages onto the planet's surface. Alas, the only thing they managed to discover was the site where that initial energy emission had happened. Which was not helping them much if any.

But since they had their order to find it, there weren't returning home until the Lost Logia was safely secure inboard of their spaceship. The crew just had to hope that something that would give them a hint where the artifact was would happen soon...


	2. The end of the old life

The second chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>karthik9<strong>, **edboy4926**, **Gracealma**, **Ranmaleopard**, **MMC**, **lordamnesia**, **thunder18**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>ultima-owner<strong>, while I will not even try denying that this Logia was heavily inspired by the Jewel Seeds, it's not one of them. It's a bit different from them too, though more about it will surface during the later chapters. It wasn't trying to protect Harry from anything - it is not that intelligent - but it still did just that regardless.  
><strong>serialkeller<strong>, he just might indeed keep the parseltongue, though so far I can't see it having any real impact on the plot. After all, there aren't any evil snake-people running around the administered worlds, are there? Though... following the certain trend... when Harry grows up a little, the ability might get an alternative use. You know what I'm talking about. ;) Anyhow, though, at this point, whether he keeps parseltongue or not, it would not change anything in the short run.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Disclaimer<em>**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter II: The end of the old life**

As it turned out, the already-infamous escaped convict Sirius Black was actually a wizard. Even worse, he actually used to be the right hand man and one of the most dangerous lieutenants of the Dark Lord Voldemort. And, it was quite likely that the young Potter was at the top of the man's to-kill list, thanks to what had happened on Halloween night a little less than eleven years ago.

Of course, the Minister for Magic claimed that the aurors were doing their best to recapture Black and will succeed at any moment now. But he was saying that so unsurely that Harry had troubles believing that Fudge was actually telling the truth and not just trying to prevent the unrest among his electorate. Anyhow, the green-eyed teen-wizard was too tired at the moment – no thanks to the very eventful day he had lived through today – to really care about mass murders on the loose. All he wanted right now was a soft bed. And Tom the bartender could provide that for him.

Even come next morning, the dark-haired wizard found more pressing issues to worry about. Namely, his magical wand. Now that he wasn't running just on adrenaline anymore, it finally caught up with him that yesterday his wand felt entirely different from what he was used to. Hell, he could swear that he was holding an ordinary piece of wood and not a wand! But since the minors were forbidden from practicing magic while not at Hogwarts, Harry couldn't really cast any spells to try and figure out what was going on that way.

* * *

><p>There were other ways, though. And since the first clue that something had happened was his wand, the young Potter decided that he should pay a visit to the old wand-maker Ollivander. To do that, though, he needed to actually enter the Diagon Alley first. Thankfully, it looked like he still could open the passage into the alley even if <em>something<em> really was wrong with _him_.

The alley was as busy and crowded as Harry remembered it to be on his visits there in the previous years. And Ollivander's wand shop too haven't changed even one bit: it was still the very same narrow and shabby building with peeling gold letters over the door and a solitary wand lying on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

Feeling a little bit apprehensive about what might happen inside, the dark-haired youth paused just in front of the shop's door. Hopefully, the old wand-maker won't be too angry with him... Shaking his head, Harry took a deep breath and stepped into the shop. Not really surprisingly, there was no one inside, even Mr. Ollivander himself was nowhere no be seen. Though, the green-eyed teen was sure that he would reveal himself before long, just like it had happened two years ago when he went there on his first shopping in the magical world... Still not seeing the shop's owner anywhere even after maybe half a minute, Harry walked up to the counter and rang the bell.

"Sorry, sorry... I'm coming." He then heard from the depths of the shop, and a few moments later Mr. Ollivander appeared from behind the shelves full of wands. "Oh, Mr. Harry Potter, eleven inches, holly and a phoenix feather. Your wand is in a good order, I hope?" Swallowing nervously, the green-eyed teen replied:

"I'm not sure. When I drew it yesterday to summon the Knight Bus, it felt quite unlike it did in the past... Like it wasn't really a wand anymore... And it feels just like that today too." He tried to explain the situation. The old wand-maker furrowed his brows.

"Can I have a look at it?" Nodding, Harry drew his wand from his pocket and handed it over to its creator. Mr. Ollivander eyed his creation for a few long moments; then he ran his long bony fingers along the wood, looking for any imperfections. "Your wand appears to be in good, working condition, Mr. Potter." He said finally. And as if to prove that, he pointed the wand towards the ceiling. "**Avis!**" With a sound not unlike a gunshot, a small flock of canaries appeared. With another wave of the wand, the shop's master dispelled the conjured birds. Then he handed the wand back to Harry. "Are you sure you still feel no proper connection with your wand, Mr. Potter?" He asked then.

"No, not really." The dark-haired youth replied – even after Mr. Ollivander had proved that his wand was fine, it still felt like an ordinary piece of wood to him.

"Hm..." The old wand-maker breathed out. "Can you, maybe, try casting some spell, Mr. Potter? It might help me understand what is wrong."

"Won't I get into a trouble with the Ministry?" Harry asked back, remembering that if he was caught casting magic outside of Hogwarts, he might end up getting expelled... Mr. Ollivander shook his head.

"No, the Ministry's detectors don't work inside my shop. But, of course, I myself am allowing this only if it helps my business... Now then, if you will." Nodding, the young Potter pointed his wand towards the ceiling and paused, trying to think of the best spell to use. In the end, since he still couldn't connect to his wand, he decided that something simple, like wand-lighting charm, would be his best choice.

"**Lumos!**" Unfortunately, nothing happened. "**Lumos!**" Harry tried again, this time trying to push as much of his magic into the spell as he could. This time, it worked. Almost. A flickering ball of light had indeed appeared at the end of his wand, but it was so small and weak that even a muggle candle would give much more light... And, while he was pushing his magic into the spell, he could also feel the newest addition to his body – the gem stuck in his chest – start warming up a bit.

"That is... very interesting, Mr. Potter. I've never seen anything like that in my life, and, believe me, I've seen a lot of strange things." The old wand-maker said, snapping the green-eyed teen out of his thoughts about the gem.

"What are you talking about?" The dark-haired teen-wizard asked then on an automate.

"Look at your feet, Mr. Potter." Raising his eyebrow at a strange suggestion, Harry still did exactly what Mr. Ollivander had said. On the floor, right under his feet, there now was a faintly-glowing magical circle that lazily rotated counter-clockwise completely on its own... Well, calling that a circle would be rather incorrect, as it actually was an eight-pointed star, created by two overlapping squares. What was even more interesting, the lines that formed this 'star' were made from runic characters – which Harry couldn't even begin to understand.

"What's that?" The green-eyed teen asked. Unfortunately for him, the shop's master had no answer.

"As I've said, Mr. Potter, I've never encountered anything like that before. I'm sorry, but I don't think I will be able to help you with this one... Though..." Here he made a small pause, before asking: "Had anything strange happened to you around the time your wand stopped responding to you?" Harry was silent for a few seconds, before he finally decided that Mr. Ollivander was trustworthy enough.

"Yeah, something did." He said finally, before pulling the collar of his T-shirt down, revealing the gem he now had on his chest.

"That's some interesting thing you have here, Mr. Potter." The wand-maker said as he drew his own wand – which, quite surprisingly for Harry, appeared to be nothing special – and started casting some spells that the green-eyed teen had never heard of...

"Well?.." The dark-haired youth asked when maybe fifteen minutes later Mr. Ollivander was finally done inspecting the gem in his chest.

"This is most definitely the reason for your problems with your wand, Mr. Potter." The old wand-makers said. "I'm not sure what exactly this crystal is, but it has changed your magical core... I'm sorry to say it, but it looks like none of the wands I have in this shop right will work properly for you." Harry couldn't help but be down in the dump upon hearing that. And that didn't go unnoticed by the shop's master. "I'll contact Albus, I'm sure he can think of something that can help you."

"T-Thank you." Harry replied.

**~/ *** \~**

"Captain!" Warrant officer Aoba reported. "We've detected the Lost Logia again. I'm still unable to provide its exact location as it appears to be behind some sort of a disruption field, but this still allows us to significantly reduce the search area." Indeed, the monitors now showed the area where the Lost Logia could be as something barely larger than that 'London' megalopolis, whereas previous it was pretty much entire Southern part of the island.

"Thank you. And please forward this data to privates Makoto and Keigo." The captain of the investigative spaceship "Leto" replied. "Also, anything you can say about this disruption field?" Aoba shook his head.

"Unfortunately, no. This is the first time I've seen anything like that – instead of weakening the signal, like normal AMF would, it instead makes impossible to tell where it originates from." He said. "And to make things even more confusing, it doesn't look like any technology originating from this planet is capable of producing anything even close to it."

"I see..." The captain replied. "Then also tell our privates to be especially careful from now on. We have no idea who is in possession of the Lost Logia and what kind of force they will use to protect it." The warrant officer nodded: he would have done that anyway.

"Yes, sir." He replied, before opening a communication window to relay the captain's new orders to the troops that were currently looking for the Lost Logia on the surface of the non-administered world 138.

**~/ *** \~**

However he had done this, Mr. Ollivander had relayed the news of Harry's condition to Dumbledore really fast. It was still just an early afternoon, when the Hogwarts headmaster arrived to the 'Leaky Cauldron' via the floo with madam Pomfrey in tow. After exchanging the greetings, the three of them headed to the room the green-eyed teen was renting. Once there, Albus proceeded to set up some powerful wards to prevent anyone from overhearing was they were going to discuss.

"So... What kind of a problem have you gotten yourself in this time, Mr. Potter?" The Hogwarts matron asked with a deep sigh almost as soon as the additional wards were up.

"Well..." Harry replied, before removing his shirt, giving the two adults in the room a clear view of the newest addition to his body. Madam Pomfrey furrowed her brows, before drawing her wand and proceeding to cast a battery of diagnostic spells... Since she much better at those than Mr. Ollivander, she also finished quite a bit faster.

"What can I say..." She began her report. "Your body, despite this thing that shouldn't be there, is in a good condition. I honestly expected to find you in a worse state, given your usual adventures and their results." Harry couldn't help but snort. "But, unfortunately, I can't say the same about your magic, Mr. Potter. This gem in your chest is definitely affecting your core, which, just like Mr. Ollivander had said, causes you the problems with your wand..."

"Then let me try running a few tests of my own?" Dumbledore said after he finished listening to madam Pomfrey's report. Upon Harry's nod, the Hogwarts headmaster began casting his spells. And, judging by the way his facial expression changed, the results he kept getting couldn't exactly be called good... Finally returning his wand into its holster, the aged warlock spoke.

"First of all, I will once again confirm the findings of my colleagues: this gem has indeed changed your magical core into something probably never seen before. And this change isn't exactly conductive to your use of magic, Harry." Even though the young Potter already knew this, hearing it again still hurt. "The only positive side effect of this merger is the darkness from your cursed scar being purged." Here he made a pause. "Anyway, I managed to find a few things about this gems you've found yourself stuck with. First of all, it contains ridiculous amounts of magical energy within itself, and it also seems to be able to generate more, through means I cannot comprehend. And despite being a magical crystal, it appears to be capable of fusing with human flesh pretty well, which raised a few questions about its origins: even the Philosopher's stone of Flamels wasn't capable of doing something like that."

"I see..." The green-eyed teen breathed out. "But what does this all mean for me? Can I go back to Hogwarts the way I am now?" He asked. Dumbledore shook his head.

"I'm afraid, Harry, that it might not be possible. After all, if I am to believe what Garrick – I mean, Mr. Ollivander – you are having troubles casting spells even as simple as lighting charm. The magic you would have learned this year is more advanced and noticeably more demanding in magical power. Something you seem to be having troubles with."

"But I still can!" Harry almost cried out. There was no way he was not returning to Hogwarts!

"Then, prove that you are still capable of keeping up with your peers." Dumbledore said gravely. The young Potter immediately accepted the challenge and drew his wand.

"**Lumos!**" Remembering how it was back in Mr. Ollivander's shop he immediately began pushing as much power into the spell as he could produce. The results, though, weren't any better than the ones he had the previous time: the ball of light at the tip of his want was still really really weak. That, and the magic 'circle' under his feet once again made its appearance.

"Ah, yes,.." The Hogwarts headmaster commented. "Garrick did mention that whenever you try drawing out impressive amounts of magical power, a glowing runic arrays appear." Here, he made a pause. "But, anyway... I'm sorry, Harry, but even though you are still capable of casting the most basic spells, the amounts of power you need to achieve that would make anything beyond the first year an impossible task for you..." Another small pause. "Just to give you a perspective on how badly you have been affected by your incident. Right now, to create a barely-visible at all light with lighting charm, you are using enough magic to create a fully-corporeal Patronus. And that is a spell that maybe only ten percents of the most powerful wizards and witches can do."

As that revelation finally finished sinking into the dark-haired youth's head, he suddenly lost all of his will to keep fighting. So much so that he simply collapsed on the floor right where he was standing.

"I'm truly sorry, Harry." Dumbledore continued. "But given that the change in your magical core is most definitely a permanent one, I'm not sure I will be able to find a way to help you quickly enough. It might take even whole years before a proper cure for your condition is ready... I'm really really sorry that this had happened to you, my boy..." Alas, Harry didn't seem to be even hearing him...

**~/ *** \~**

"Captain!" Warrant officer Aoba called. "The Lost Logia has been detected again." He reported "It is still behind that strange disruption field, but it had changed its position somewhat, so I might be able to further reduce the search area. Please give me a few minutes to work on it."

"Thank you." The captain replied. "And please do so." Acknowledging his superior's order, Aoba began working on this task. Multiple images, maps and charts flickered across his monitors, eventually setting into a detailed map of this 'London' city with only the central districts being marked as the potential locations of the Lost Logia they had been trying to find for the last few days.

"Here you go, Captain." He said as the sent the updated map to the main screen of the "Leto"'s bridge. "Should I send the data to privates too?" The commander of the spaceship shook his head.

"No need, I will be recalling them inboard now – it's almost lunch the end of the shift anyway. You can give them the briefing when they arrive." Warrant officer Aoba nodded.

"Understood." He replied, before returning his attention to his workstation. While he wasn't sure it will really work, it was possible that the search area could still be reduced a little bit more with the data he had. He just needed to run a few tests on it...

**~/ *** \~**

By the time Harry had eventually overcome the shock from learning that he now was essentially a squib and would not be going to Hogwarts come September the first, it was already an early evening and both Dumbledore and madam Pomfrey – both of whom had thing more important than baby-sitting him to do – had already left the 'Leaky Cauldron' long time ago.

The young Potter lifelessly went downstairs to have some early dinner. His low spirits didn't go unnoticed by Tom the bartender, but the green-eyed teen refused to tell the man what his problem was. He wasn't ready to tell this even to his closest friends, Hermione and Ron. And thinking about how they will react when he won't show up for the Hogwarts express or the Start-of-the-year feast seemed to only send him deeper into the depression.

To make things even worse for the dark-haired youth, no longer being able to keep up with the magical due to being a squib now, he would have to return to the muggle side. And, honestly, he could readily imagine how difficult it would be to catch up with his peers there. Not to mention, he needed to find himself a more permanent place to stay: he couldn't possibly be renting a room at the 'Leaky Cauldron' forever, now could he?

Completely losing his appetite, the young Potter left his still semi-filled plate on the table and headed out of the pub and into the busy streets of the muggle London. He needed a long walk to calm down and clear his head... And trying to do that in the Diagon Alley wouldn't work at all. After all, seeing all those magical things everywhere, whether he really wanted to or not, was bound to make him even more unhappy that he already was...

Being in the state he was, the green-eyed teen allowed his feet to carry him wherever they wanted to. And he had been walking aimlessly like that for hours – at least the now-completely-dark sky above his head told him so. Looking around, the young Potter found that his wandering through the streets of London had brought him to the Burgess park. Oh well, Harry thought... This was a nice place and, truth to be said, he was kind of tired from all of the walking he had done today.

Deciding that he should relax for a little bit before heading back to the 'Leaky Cauldron', the dark-haired not-anymore-wizard sat down on a bench... To bad, the Fate decided that it was not the time for him to rest: just a few minutes later, he notices a glowing ball of greenish light floating among the trees, as if it was looking for something. Then it noticed him...

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	3. Close encounter of the third kind

The third chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>edboy4926<strong>, **Rennerd**, **karthik9**, **Impstar**, **Ranmaleopard**, **lordamnesia**, **Penny is wise**, **thunder18**, **serialkeller**, **Angel Thera**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>Gracealma<strong>, Tommy-boy will be facing one insignificant little problem in going after Harry... Namely, Harry is too far away. Mid-Childa away.  
><strong>Xamusel - Gamma 11<strong>, no, there is another route opening for him, and he will be rather properly persuaded into taking in via gunboat diplomacy.  
><strong>Sakura Lisel<strong>, No, there definitely will be those who think that if you can't use a wand, you're a squib. But, no, neither Harry nor even Dumbledore are among those. The problem is, Dumbledore chose the worst possible time to be truthful (there is really no way for him to know how much time developing the cure for Harry's condition will take) and the worst possible words to tell Harry about it. And let's not forget that Harry himself is plentifully stressed already, thanks to the discovery of his magic having changed. Thus,... well, Harry now indeed thinks that Dumbledore thinks of him as a squib.  
><strong>ultima-owner<strong>, TSAB isn't above using gunboat diplomacy. And they can be persuasive. Hell, the title of the story should give you the answer ;) 

* * *

><p><strong><em>Disclaimer<em>**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter III: Close encounter of the third kind**

Harry sat still as a statue as the mysterious ball of light floated towards him: while it didn't look like it would attack at a bare possibility, one could never be sure... Thankfully, this particular magical construct proved to be quite harmless as after just a few seconds it disappeared without a trace. It all was almost like he had hallucinated the whole thing... Yes, that probably was the case, the young Potter though. With a sigh, he returned his gaze onto the ground, completely missing a semi-transparent brownish barrier surrounding the area...

What he couldn't have missed, was a glowing greenish magical circle – of the same color as that ball of light not a minute earlier, actually – appearing roughly fifteen feet in front of him... And unlike his own one, this magical circle was really a circle, though it did have more concentric rings and squares inscribed in it.

Then there was a flash of light, and a man stepped out of – presumably his – magical circle. He was fairly tall, but also didn't look like he belonged to any race Harry could recognize. And he had naturally-light-blue hair! He was dressed into a deep-blue military uniform with somewhat-bulky white chest armor and shoulder straps over it. Finally, in his hands this man was holding what looked like magical staff, but of decisively-futuristic design.

The two of them stared at each other for a few long seconds. Then the man raised his staff and pointed it at the young Potter.

"**Ring bind!**" The man intoned, and the gem near the tip of the staff glowed for a brief moment. Then, four rings of greenish light appeared around the green-eyed teen's limbs, making it impossible for him to move. "You are under arrest for possessing and using class L restricted object. Do not resist and you will be given a chance to defend yourself in front of the authorities."

"What the..." Harry began, but a wide strip of magically-created light appeared across his mouth, gagging him. His captor lowered his staff.

"You will have your chance to speak later. Be silent now." Just as he finished saying that, another magical circle, this time carmine in color, appeared next to him. And a moment later, another man in similar uniform and with a similar-looking futuristic staff in his hands stepped out of it. While this one had more natural-looking short brown hair, his race was still as unguessable as the one of his apparent partner. "The holder of the Lost Logia is captured, private first class Belta!" Harry's captor said while giving a salute.

"Good job, private Cynos." The newly-arrived man responded, returning the salute. Then he created a holographic screen out of the thin air. Apparently, this was some sort of a videophone as the young Potter could see yet another man in these deep-blue uniforms – though this one wasn't wearing any armor – with something that looked like a spaceship bridge from a sci-fi movie in the background. "Captain!" Belta said while he and his partner saluted to their superior. "We have secured the holder of the Lost Logia and are ready to transfer him." The man on the other end of the video-bridge nodded.

"Good job, private first class Keigo Belta, private Makoto Cynos. You have the permission to transfer to "Leto". Warrant officer Hoshido and sub lieutenant Jazz will meet you in the bay." The captain, replied. The holographic screen then disappeared. The apparently-magical soldier who had captured him, Makoto was his name, picked Harry up and walked into the magical circle his partner had meanwhile created. Then the world the young Potter was seeing dissolved in a flash of light.

* * *

><p>When Harry could see again – which was maybe just a couple of seconds later – he no longer was in the Burgess park. Or, if what he could see out of the large panoramic window on the left could be believed, no longer on the surface of the Earth. He was now inboard of a spaceship hundred times bigger than 'Mir' space station. And this spaceship was currently lazily floating high above the surface of the planet... His further thoughts were interrupted when two of the spaceship's officers approached his captors.<p>

One of those two was a huge bald man with tanned skin. Sub lieutenant Jazz, or whatever the ship's captain had called him, judging by his shoulder straps. Accompanying him there was a noticeably more petite woman with flaming-crimson hair made into two tight buns on the sides of her head. Like the rest of the ship's crew, she wore the deep-blue uniform, though she also had a white doctor's coat thrown over it.

"He looks like a stray wind can break him." Jazz observed as Harry's captors saluted to him. "Are you sure that he really is the one in possession of the Lost Logia, privates?"

"Yes, sir!" Both of them replied simultaneously. Then Makoto, who was the one to really capture Harry, continued: "My device does register a powerful signature within his body. And it is way too powerful to be his linker core." The bald sub lieutenant eyed the captured green-eyed teen for a few seconds, before sighing in acceptance.

"Very well, let's get him to the briefing room and get all of the information about whom he is working for out of him." Then he muttered something about the fact that he should have already been home a few days ago as he turned around and began stalking away, soon disappearing from Harry's view behind automated doors... Presumably, that man was heading to the room where his interrogation would held.

The privates, who were still holding the young Potter, began towing him after their superior, while the red-haired doctor-woman quietly followed them, keeping a small distance of a few steps between them. After being dragged along the spaceship's corridors for a couple of minutes, the green-eyed Earthling was brought to a surprisingly large room with a long table able to fit at least twenty men in its center. Sub lieutenant Jazz was already there, sitting at the head of that table with a couple of holographic displays hovering in front of him.

"Drop him somewhere and remove the gag – if I am to interrogate him, he must be able to talk." The bald officer barked. After giving a cry of 'Aye, sir!', the privates that had captured him, brought Harry to one of the chairs at the center of the table dropped him onto it rather unceremoniously. Then they made a step back – with their staffs drawn – and Makoto made the magical gag in the green-eyed teen's mouth disappear into nothingness.

"What in the Merlin's name is going on!" The dark-haired teen cried out immediately. "Where am I and what gives you lot the right to just abduct me?!" No, he remembered his captor telling something about possessing and using some sort of a forbidden item, but he didn't care about that right now. The men in the blue uniforms shared glances with each other, as if communicating telepathically.

"You've been arrested for possessing and using class L restricted object." Lieutenant baldy growled. "My privates have already told you this, so don't play stupid with us." Letting out a sigh, he continued: "Now, depending on how much you cooperate with us, you might end up in the rehab program or be sent to one of the orbital prisons 'till you die there." Another pause, which the man used to glare at Harry. "So... What were you doing with that Lost Logia?"

"What's Lost Logia?" The young Potter shot back without really thinking. But that simple question had stunned his interrogator into the silence for a good ten seconds.

"Don't fuckin' joke with me, punk!" Jazz roared, slamming his hands against the table as he stood up. It looked like he was about to come at the still-magically-bound green-eyed teen, but was stopped when the red-haired 'doctor' spoke.

"It might be hard to believe, but this boy genuinely believes in not knowing what you are talking about." The 'doc' woman said. Turning his head around to look at his savior for the moment, Harry noticed that right now she had some strange shades covering her eyes that she wasn't wearing before. And judging by flashing lights on the lenses, those shades were not just a cool accessory.

"What are you talking about, Aoko?" Jazz turned his attention to the coat-wearing woman. "Every fuckin' trainee mage in the TSAB knows what Logia are since like the first fuckin' day of their training! I refuse to believe that someone who actually possesses one doesn't know what it fuckin' is!" His shouting didn't seem to phase Aoko, though.

"You know as well as I do that anyone can make mistakes, Jazz." She replied. "But as far as I can tell, he is not lying about not knowing about Logia. Also, my Prüferbrille tells me that his linker core is greatly underdeveloped. He cannot be a trained mage, despite having the Logia literally stuck in his chest." The bald lieutenant sighed as he retook his seat.

"Fine. But you'll do the explaining." He grumbled while crossing his arms on his chest. "You're the scientist here. I just kick asses."

"Very well." Aoko replied. Then she turned to look at Harry, who, despite the situation, was quite interested in what the red-haired woman had to say. After all, apparently, she knew something about the gem that was stuck in his chest. "Lost Logia is the collective name for the number of ancient magical relics of great power." She explained. "At the moment at least three hundreds of them have been documented, but still more are to be found. Some of them are passive and rather harmless if kept out of the villains' hands, but there also are some that can cause catastrophes on their own should they awaken." Upon hearing that, Harry instinctively looked down at his chest.

"Oh." He breathed out.

"Don't worry." The red-haired scientist reassured him. "According to scans done by my colleague aboard of this very vessel, the one in your, let's say, possession is neutrally-aligned, and it's not all that powerful one too. It still contains the power beyond what any mage can reasonably have on their own, but it won't – I dunno – go off and randomly start an apocalypse like _some other_ might."

"That's nice to know..." The young Potter said. He didn't fancy the thought of carrying a magical equivalent of an armed nuke in his body.

"Now then, tell us where you got the thing from?" The sub lieutenant Jazz said, directing a threatening glare at the still-magically-bound Earthling.

"Well... Um... I fell on it." Harry replied as he did as best of a shrug as he could with his limbs still restrained, while also looking like an innocence incarnate. His interrogator, though, didn't seem to like the answer, but, once again, the bald man was stopped by 'doctor' Aoko.

"He isn't lying as far as I can tell, so chill out." She said.

"I still don't believe him." Jazz shot back. "He must be hiding something. Logia don't just lie scattered on the ground down there, do they?" A glare directed at the young Potter told him that he should be quiet for now... There was a pretty long silence, during which the two officers kept communicating telepathically. "Hoshido-san and I are going to consult with the captain." The bald sub lieutenant finally said. "You two will be guarding the brat. And if he as much as moves from his place, I will have you cleaning the toilets at the space prison for the rest of your careers." With those words he stood up and marched out of the room with the red-haired warrant officer hurrying after him.

* * *

><p>Maybe fifteen or so minutes later, the two of them returned. With the sub lieutenant looking none too happy – not that he appeared to be a cheerful individual to being with... The red-haired 'doctor', on the other hand, seemed to be quite smug about something.<p>

"It seems that you are quite lucky today, brat." Jazz barked. "Captain decided to believe this woman over there and agreed that unless proven otherwise, you are not a part of some Logia-collecting terrorist organization." Turning to the two privates that had been standing behind Harry all this time, he ordered: "Release the bindings on him." The young Potter felt the his two guards move and a moment later the rings of light around his limbs disappeared, allowing him to move them again.

"Does this mean I can go home now?" The green-eyed teen asked then, while warming up his a little bit numb – hey, being unable to move for an hour would do that! – arms and legs. The 'doctor' was the one to give his question an answer, and, unfortunately, it wasn't the answer Harry wanted to hear.

"I'm afraid, it all isn't that simple." She said. "Now that you are connected to Lost Logia, it won't just go away. And, what's more, because of that, you will become a target of various people wishing to use you to further their own agendas." Here, she let out a sigh. "I won't even sugar-coat things by saying that we're much different. TSAB – that would be 'Time-Space Administration Bureau' – too would like to have your power on its side. The greatest difference between us and the rest of the Logia hunters you will no doubt meet is that we guarantee to pay you fairly for your efforts in assisting us in money, goods as well as in our support and protection."

Harry let out a sigh. While he really hoped that they'd let him go and his life would return to whatever could be called a norm for him... But he also understood that the chances of that happening were slim: he had been abducted by a group of magic users in possession of a freaking spaceship after all. And now that it was actually confirmed that he wasn't returning to Earth anytime soon – even if he tried to flee, these people had already proven themselves capable of catching him – all he could do was gathering as much information about what was in the future for him as he could.

"Assuming that I accept the offer... What is going to happen to me?" He asked.

"Well..." Once again, it was warrant officer Aoko Hoshido who was giving him the answers. "Once this case is resolved, you will be brought to the TSAB HQ. And from there... Well, the chances are, you will be placed into the care of Magitek Research Department attached to the Infinite Library in the Main Office. Tactical Instructor Corps taking you in is another possibility..." She made a small pause. "I'm sorry to say that, but whether you want it or not, thanks to that artifact in your chest, military-related professions are the only careers available to you in the foreseeable future." Then, tilting her head to the side slightly, she added with a small smile: "But, at least, the pay is good, and in a decade or so, you will be able to retire and pick some other job to do."

"I see..." Harry replied with a sigh. Under any other circumstances he'd tell them that Dumbledore won't permit it, but he was quite sure that even the Hogwarts headmaster wouldn't be able to get him out of the spaceship gone beyond the Earth's orbit. If they wanted to take him by force, there was nothing that could stop them... Not that they were all that bad, despite handling him quite roughly in the beginning; joining them might be one of the better options... Even if he'd rather stay on Earth.

"Well, brat, what are you going to say?" The sub lieutenant's voice tore the young Potter out of his thoughts. "Are you going with us or what?"

"Fine." Like he had a choice, the green-eyed teen thought... "But may I at least collect my things and send out a few letters to my friends telling them that I'm moving out and they shouldn't look for me? And it's not like I will be able to run away from you – you've shown already that can capture me if you want to." Harry pushed. The people in the room shared a look.

"That seems reasonable enough." 'Doctor' Aoko said after a few seconds. "Though, the captain will have the final word in it, I'm sure, you will get his permission. Should I ask him now?" She asked then. The young Potter nodded. Returning the nod, the red-haired scientist once again left the room.

While she was gone, the green-eyed teen couldn't help but think about the ways his life was going to change... Soon, he will leave the Earth, likely forever. And the chances were, he'd never be able to speak to or even write to his friends there. He'll miss them dearly. He'll miss his chess games with Ron, and Hermione bugging them with doing their homework on time... He'll miss the rest of Gryffindors, and his professors... And Hogwarts, he'll definitely miss it. It had been his home for the last two years, after all... Hell, he might even miss Malfoy and his goons annoying him!

'Doctor' Aoko returning to the room pulled Harry out of his thoughts. "Captain agreed to give you a few hours to finish your businesses on the planet. Do you want to do that now, or would you rather do it in a few hours, when the night is over?"

"I'd rather do it in the morning... I'm kinda tired now." Harry said after thinking for a few moments. Plus, since he'd be taking Hedwig with him, he'll need to use post office in the Diagon alley, and it didn't open until eight in the morning. Speaking of his beautiful snowy owl... "Will there be any problems if I bring my pet here? – There will be no one left to take care of her when I leave my place." He asked then – there was no way he was not taking her with him. The red-haired warrant officer in a lab coat shrugged.

"Unless it's something deadly or dangerous, I can't see why not." She replied.

"No, nothing like that... It's just... She is an owl." Harry said.

"An owl?" 'Doctor' Aoko asked in surprise as the lights began flickering behind the lenses of her shades. "It's... a very unusual pet..." She said finally. "But I don't think there will be any problems with her being aboard "Leto". We always do have some kind of a meat on the table, so she will have something to eat until we arrive to HQ."

"Alright. Thank you." The young Potter replied.

"Shall I guide you to the room you will be staying for now?" The red-haired woman asked then. Receiving a nod from the green-eyed teen, she began guiding him out of the briefing room, but a call from the sub lieutenant stopped them in the doors.

"It should be around midnight by your time, right now." The bald man stated. "We will be waking you up in six hours, brat, so get as much rest as you can. You are on the ship belonging to Dimensional Navy, so you _will_ behave like a proper member of the crew. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" Harry replied on automate. Apparently, that was the correct answer, as Jazz nodded, thus telling him and Aoko that they could continue on their way to wherever they were going... When they were some distance away from the briefing hall, the red-haired 'doctor' spoke:

"While you can be assured that Jazz will have you woken up when he said he will, do you want to write those letters you wanted to send to you friends now? I imagine, tomorrow will be a very busy day for you." She asked.

"Yeah. That would be quite helpful." Harry agreed. Then, he remembered that so far he had seen people inboard of this spacecraft using only holographic displays. "You have... paper, right?" He asked.

"Yes. I will bring some to you room." Was Aoko's response, which made the young Potter let out a sigh of relief... Soon enough, the red-haired 'doctor' stopped in front of an automatic door that looked no different from any other in this corridor "Here it is, the room you will be staying in till we arrive to HQ." She said, while pressing the button, thus making the door open.

The room was quite small. Then again, it was a _personal_ room inboard of a spaceship, so that could easily be forgiven... Occupying almost entire right side of the room there was a single raised bed with a few cabinets under it. And behind the bed, at the far end of the room, there was a very narrow wardrobe, probably big enough to fit just two or three sets of uniforms. The other side of the room had a small table with just digital clock sitting on it and a chair. And that was all.

"Get yourself comfortable. I'll go get you the paper and something to write with." Aoko said. Then, after thinking for a few seconds, she added: "The toilet and the showers are down the corridor at the very end." Nodding, Harry stepped into the room which he will be staying in the foreseeable future. Since all that he had at the moment were the clothes on his back and the contents of his pockets – nothing to fill the cabinets or wardrobe with – he just sat on the chair besides the table and waited for the 'doctor' to return, while his thoughts once again wandered towards his soon-to-left-behind friends... The woman returned a few minutes and handed him a few sheets of paper and a rather futuristic pen.

"Thank you." The young Potter said. But the red-haired 'doctor' waved her hand telling him to think nothing of it. Then she left the room, pressing the button to close to door on her way out. Sighing deeply, Harry stared at the sheets of paper he still held in his hands.

He now needed to write letters to Hermione, Ron and professor Dumbledore – now to think of it, one to professor McGonagall as well – telling them that he was leaving and that they shouldn't even look for him. And he needed to do that without ever mentioning the Magitek users with a freakin' spaceship that had ...persuaded him to come with them to whatever location their HQ was... These would, without any doubts, be some very hard letters to write...

He also needed to do something about his Earthly possessions... After all, he highly doubted that he'll be allowed to take anything but bare minimum with him. So, his broom and his books would have to stay on the planet. His half-completed summer homework too... And then there was the matter of his gold at Gringotts... Harry doubted that these people would accept magical currency, so if he wanted some seed money, he'd better convert his galleons into something that could be traded for goods or local currency anywhere...

But, anyway, tomorrow, like 'doctor' Hoshido had said, would be a busy day, and he needed to get some rest for it. So, he no thinking about anything but composing the letters. With that thought in mind, Harry got to 'work'...

_Dear professor Dumbledore,_  
><em>I'm terribly sorry about this, but it looks like I won't be returning to Hogwarts, neither this year, nor in the future. An opportunity turned up, and I'm moving out of the country to a place far and far away..<em>.

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	4. Leaving the Earth

The fourthchapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>edboy4926<strong>, well, what do you expect from the organization, with many 'befriended' ex-criminals working for it? Of course, the proper protocols will be breached every now and then.  
><strong>skifast<strong>, **Jose19**, **Star Iron**, **ultima-owner**, **chm01**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Thracer**, **karthik9**, **thunder18**, **Sakura Lisel**, **moon so bright**, **Guest**, **Nyamu**, FateBurn, **Opinr**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>Junky<strong>, core will be fixed, and you don't underestimate Lost Logia, even if it is merely a class 4 one - it is still a very very powerful artifact.  
><strong>Penny is wise<strong>, they presumed that since his core isn't properly developed he isn't a mage, and thus likely has no knowledge of those shields. Which is technically true, since Harry really doesn't know how those wards around the Diagon alley are made and how they function.  
><strong>serialkeller<strong>, the cloak will be with him, worry not.  
><strong>Kitsunegan<strong>, he's tired and depressed by the events earlier that day; he thinks that magical world doesn't want him. Yet he also understands that his magic isn't gone, and here come the (admittedly, less than friendly at the first glance) people that tell him that there is a chance of him re-learning to use magic. And since they are a part of interstellar organization, they aren't a gang of space pirates or something like that - they are lawful, likely lawful good in their alignment, so Harry might feel that if they stop treating him like he is a criminal, he might actually just fit in with their ranks.

*** AN**: Forgot to mention it the last time, I've added a link to Harry's complete (he should get there in a few chapters) magical circle to my profile.

Also, I'm running out of the pre-prepared chapters, and in the following days I won't have much time to write anything thanks to the impending exams I need to pass for my candidate of science degree - getting ready for those will leave no time for just about anything else.

And one more thing to clarify: while it isn't obvious yet, Harry is about four years older than the (future) Aces in this story. While this does place some restriction the less combat-related parts of the story that still have potential to reach M rating... Will it matter once I get to about StrikerS manga part of the timeline? Not to mention that maybe, just maybe, a certain silver-haired red-eyed beauty won't actually have to commit an overly-glorified suicide this time around.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Disclaimer<em>**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter IV: Leaving the Earth**

Even though he was really tired by the time he finished writing his last goodbye letter, Harry still couldn't sleep well. No, the bed he was given was actually quite nice. His dreams were the problem. They were plagued by various scenarios of him bidding the final farewells to the various people he knew. And let's just say that not all of those went well...

That, and he was woken up way too soon by someone banging their fist against the door of his room. Sitting up with a yawn, Harry looked at the clock which sat on the room's table. It was two minutes past six in the morning already. And that meant that the one disturbing him was no one other than sub lieutenant Jazz.

"Are you awake yet, brat?" The said man asked loudly enough for the green-eyed teen hear him clearly even through the tightly-shut door of his room.

"Yes, sir!" Harry yelled back, while doing his best not to drop back onto the bed and go back to sleep.

"Good." The sub lieutenant answered: "Now get dressed and washed up, the breakfast is in ten minuted. Warrant Officer Hoshido agreed to take you down to the surface; you better not make her wait." The young Potter grumbled something not really intelligible in response as he straightened his clothes – he had been to tired to undress before going to sleep ...tonight? "What was that?!" Jazz asked.

"Yes, sir!" Harry shouted to get the man stop bothering him so early in the morning. With another sigh, the green-eyed teen finally got out of the bed and walked up to the door. Still being half-asleep, it took him a couple of moments to remember that the door didn't have a handle and he needed to press a button on the wall to open it instead.

Falling out into the corridor, the young Potter headed towards where the bathroom was supposed to be in a good imitation of a zombie from a horror movie. Jazz accompanied him there as he'd need to guide the Earthling to the mess in a few minutes anyway...

Some washing up with cold water later, and the green-eyed teen was a little bit more awake. As soon as he was done with his morning routine, the sub lieutenant guided him to the mess. Which, considering the fact that it was inboard of a spacecraft, too was impressively-big. This spaceship had to be even bigger than Harry originally though!

"This will be your seat for the time being." Sub lieutenant Jazz said as pointed him to an empty seat at the table occupied by the vessel's lower ranks, where a tray of food was waiting for him. "Eat up." And without waiting for a response from the young Earthling, the bald officer headed to his seat at the other table... Sighing, Harry sat down and eye the food. It didn't really look like anything he was used to, but he also was hungry enough not to really care about that. It also helped that despite its looks, the food tasted much like what the young Potter was used to...

Sometime around the middle of the breakfast, the captain of the spaceship himself showed up. Harry noticed it when everyone else in the room suddenly stood up to salute for their commander. Not really wanting to stick out like a sore thumb, the green-eyed teen hasted to follow their example, even if he was neither a part of the spaceship's crew nor an agent of this TSAB organization yet.

Once everyone returned to their meals, Harry sneakily studied at the captain. And while the man wasn't as big and brutish as Jazz, he was still intimidating – if one didn't know that he was actually pretty kind – he did look almost like a comic character Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. without an eye-patch after all.

When he eventually was done with his breakfast, Harry, following the example of the others, left his tray on the small table next to the sinks. Then, deciding that there was no reason for him to hang inside the mess, he walked out – he could wait for the 'doctor' Aoko in the corridor just as well. The said red-haired mage soon walked out of the mess herself.

"There you are." She said as she spotted the young Potter. "Ready for the day?"

"Yeah, just let me get the letters from the room, and I'm all set." The green-eyed teen replied... Then he recalled something. "Also... I don't think we've been formally introduced yet." The 'doctor' nodded.

"Well, yes, yesterday was quite a day for everyone, wasn't it?.. Anyway, I'm warrant officer Aoko Hoshido, originally from administered world #3, Vaizen. I'm in charge of the scientific facilities and the medical bay inboard of this spaceship." She introduced herself.

"And I'm Harry Potter. From Earth..." The green-eyed teen said. Then he added: "The deadweight, I guess." Aoko, though, shook her head.

"No, not really." After all, as a carrier of a Lost Logia, he would be a great asset for the Bureau once he got some proper training... "And one more thing, since there is more than one world called Earth, which we at TSAB keep an eye on, you should use 'non-administered world 138' instead, so that you won't confuse people."

"Alright." He replied quite on an automate, while trying to decide on how he should feel about this revelation. After all, until yesterday, his home planet had been more or less the center of the universe for him. And now he learned that it was just some numbered 'world' on the outskirts of an interstellar confederation, the one not even in the first hundred...

They walked rest of the way back to the room Harry was staying in without saying another word. And once the young Potter had collected the letters to his friends and professors he had written yesterday, Aoko guided him to the transportation chamber – the very first room he had seen in his time aboard of this spaceship. The red-haired 'doctor' had them walk into the center of the chamber then.

"Are you ready?" She asked the green-eyed Earthling as a red magical circle appeared under her feet. And upon his nod, she activated the spell, making Harry's world dissolve into a flash of light.

* * *

><p>A few moments later, the young Potter found himself once again standing in the Burgess park. Actually, the 'doctor' brought him to pretty much the same spot he had been taken to spaceship from yesterday. Harry could understand why she had chosen this place, even if he'd rather she dropped him off somewhere closer to Charing Cross and the 'Leaky Cauldron'.<p>

"Alright..." The red-haired warrant officer began. "Since I have better things to do than chaperoning you the whole day – not that I'm sure you'd like me to do that anyway – just tell me how much time you need to conclude your businesses in this world?" She asked. "Would six hours be enough?" The young Potter thought about it for a few moments.

"Probably." Was his answer.

"Good..." Aoko said. Then, she had a holographic display with clock on it spring to life in front of her. "It's about seven in the morning here, so... At one in the afternoon here, then?" Making a small pause, she added: "Just remember, if you aren't here by then, we will start searching."

"I'll do my best to be here on time." Harry said, sufficiently threatened by the thought of space-mages wreaking havoc across London in attempt to find him.

"Good." Aoko said, before her circle flared to life under her feet.

"Wait!" The young Potter called. There were a few things he needed to ask.

"Yes?" The red-haired 'doctor' asked as she raised her eyebrow.

"I have some money to my name here..." The green-eyed teen began. "But I'm sure your currency is different, so... Is there anything in particular that I will be able to easily sell for money in your world?" There was a couple of seconds, before he was given an answer.

"Well..." 'Doctor' Hoshido began. "Precious metals are always valuable since a they are used in the production of devices. And jewelry too, of course. Rubies and diamonds too are used in the production of high-end technology. And a nice natural gem still beats anything artificial, even if it is created with our level of tech." She said. "I'm sure that you'd be able to sell anything of that for some nice seed money on any of the administered worlds."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to convert my remaining assets into those while I'm at the local bank." Harry told her, while secretly happy that he wouldn't have to start dirt poor in whatever world he'd end in.

"Is there anything else?" Aoko asked next.

"Nothing I can think of at the moment." The young Potter replied as he shook his head.

"Well then, see you in a few hours. Don't be late." The red-haired 'doctor' said, before disappearing in a flash of light, presumably returning to the spaceship to do whatever she needed to do there.

**~/ *** \~**

After telling Tom the bartender that he will be moving out later today, Harry went to the room he was renting at the 'Leaky Cauldron' and started sorting through his things. His broom, he decided, will go to Ron – he doubted that it would really be okay for him to bring it inboard of "Leto", and he wasn't even sure it would work for him at all... His schoolbooks could be given away as charity, as could be his Hogwarts robes. And his completed summer homework... After some thinking, the young Potter decided that he should attach it to the letter he was going to send to professor McGonagall once the owl post office in the Diagon alley opened for today's business.

Thus, the only things left in his trunk were his casual clothes – even if he probably should get himself something more presentable – his invisibility cloak, the photo album, his personal hygiene items and various trinkets he had been gifted with over the last two years. And, Hedwig's things and a couple of not-perishable snacks. That should be enough for the time being, he decided.

Done with sorting through his stuff, the young Potter picked the books and robes he was going to give away and headed out into the Diagon alley. Thanks to being with the Weasleys there the previous summer, he knew where the second-hand shops were, thus needn't waste any time on searching for them. He was on a tight schedule, after all... The shop keeper was very happy about him giving the things away, but, for whatever reason, refused to accept them without paying him back. In the end, Harry agreed to sell his goods to the man for a token price of three knuts.

With that done, the young Potter headed to Gringotts. Since it was still pretty early in the morning, the bank's hall was mostly empty with only a few tellers to serve rare customers. Picking the one goblin that appeared to be the least busy, Harry walked up to the counter.

"What can I do for you today, human?" The goblin sneered, without stopping whatever he was doing.

"I'm Harry James Potter and I want to know whether there is a family vault to my name." The green-eyed teen said. After all, while it was entirely possible that the vault he had seen already was the only one, confirming it would never hurt.

"Prove that you are who you claim to be." The teller replied as he slid him a piece of parchment and a blood-red quill that looked at very least suspiciously-dangerous. "Write your name on the parchment and we will see if you are truthful." Nodding, Harry did as he was told, wincing slightly when he felt the magic carve the letters onto the back of his hand. "Hm..." The goblin breathed out as he examined the parchment. "It appears that you are indeed Mr. Harry Potter..." After a pause, the teller continued: "As for your question, yes, there is a vault to your name besides the trust vault you have the key to. If you wish to learn more, you need to arrange for a meeting with your account manager."

"Can I see him now?" The green-eyed teen asked. He was really short on time, and if he knew anything at all about goblins, the process of arranging for a meeting would take at least a few days.

"Now see here, human." The teller responded, clearly agitated. "Master Silverclaw is very busy, you can't just demand a meeting with him whenever you please!" Forcing himself to remain as calm as possible, Harry replied:

"Unfortunately, the situation I'm in requires me to have this meeting this morning. I'm willing to pay a lot of extra gold for your time, if it will let me have a meeting with him now." The mention of extra payment seemed to have changed the goblin's mind.

"Very well..." He replied. "I shall ask if master Silverclaw agrees to see on these conditions. Don't get your hopes up, though, human, and get your gold ready." With those words the teller summoned one of errand-boy-goblins and had a short conversation with him in a language Harry couldn't understand. The younger goblin finally nodded and and headed out of the hall as fast as he could without breaking into a run. "Is there anything else you want meanwhile?" The young Potter was asked next.

"That would depend on whether I'm allowed to see my account manager." Nodding, the teller returned to doing whatever he did before the green-eyed teen had shown up at his counter... It took the errand boy a few minutes to return, but when he did, he brought some good news for Harry: master Silverclaw agreed to see him now.

"Looks like Luck is on your side today, human." The teller commented. "Follow Copperfork, he'll guide you to master Silverclaw's office." He said then, gesturing towards the errand-boy-goblin.

* * *

><p>"Alright, Mr. Potter, what kind of a business you have that is so important, that it absolutely can't wait?" Silverclaw asked as he directed a piercing stare at the green-eyed teen.<p>

"Well... You see..." Harry began. "I'm in the need of closing the Potter vaults."

"What?" The account manager almost yelled. "Why do you want that? Is our service not up to your satisfaction, Mr. Potter?" He asked in a demanding tone. Harry shook his head.

"No, nothing like that, master Silverclaw. Your services are as good as they can be. My life, however, demands me to move to a far away location, permanently, this afternoon. I know for sure that your bank has no branches there and I have my doubts that I will ever be able to return here and properly use the Potter family assets."

"I see..." The goblin said as he deflated. There was a pretty long silence, before he spoke again: "Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to touch the main Potter vault until you are at least fifteen years old, So there is nothing you can do about those at this moment. You can only manage your trust vault." Harry sighed. While this wasn't unexpected, he'd rather be able to close everything and move on to the next chapter of his life without anything left behind unmanaged...

"Can I at least order to seal the vaults and properties I will gain upon becoming a legal adult? Even if I won't be able to access them from the place I'm going to, I'd rather not someone else claim and misuse them." He asked then. Silverclaw nodded.

"Yes that would be quite possible, though there is quite a bit of paperwork you will need to fill out for that." The goblin said, causing the green-eyed teen shudder a little bit at the thought of writing Merlin knows how much with a blood quill.

"Alright, I'll sign those parchments." He said. Nodding, the house Potter's account manager summoned an errand-boy-goblin and asked him to bring the appropriate forms – or, at least Harry thought he did, as he couldn't understand gobbledegook the goblins were speaking.

"While we're waiting for the forms, is there anything else you'd like to do with your estate?" Silverclaw asked.

"Yes." Harry said. "I would like to know, if it is possible to convert all of the money I have in my trust vault into gems and precious metals – mostly gold and platinum – that could safely be sold in the non-magical world at a later date." After thinking for a bit, he corrected himself: "All sans the amount I'll have to pay you for your efforts, of course."

"You don't want to start knutless at whatever place you're moving to?" Silverclaw asked. "Well, that is indeed possible. And I might be able to pull some strings and have your trust vault refilled a little bit earlier. This will let you convert twice as much galleons into the goods." He said. "Do you want that?"

"Please do so." Harry asked. Then the errand goblin returned, carrying a terrifyingly-tall stack of parchments that, apparently, were the forms that the young Potter needed to fill out to freeze the vaults and properties he couldn't close or liquidate.

"Here you go." Silverclaw said as he passed the forms to Harry, along with the familiar blood-red quill to fill those forms out. "I've included the paperwork for closing your trust vault as well." The young Potter nodded a 'thank you' for that. "And while you are filling these out, I will arrange for the moneys you can access to be converted into gems and precious metals you'll be able to resell."

"Thank you very much." The green-eyed teen said as he picked up the cursed quill and began the slow process of filling the forms out...

* * *

><p>A little more than an hour later, Harry walked out of master Silverclaw's office with all of his business with Gringotts complete and two suitcases in his hands, one full of high-quality gems and the other containing a few pounds of precious metals. Now, there was just one last thing he needed to do before he could head back to the Burgess park and wait for 'doctor' Aoko to take him back to the spaceship: he needed to send the letters.<p>

Since he had left those – and the other things he was going to send along with the actual letters – in his room at the 'Leaky Cauldron', Harry headed there. He also needed to drop the suitcase off somewhere as he had only two hands and carrying them plus his broomstick would be too troublesome when he had other options available.

Upon returning to the room he was renting at the pub, the young Potter discovered that Hedwig had returned and was now sleeping in her cage. The green-eyed teen could swear she somehow knew that the two of them would be leaving their homeland soon... Well, whatever... After petting his owl affectionately, Harry placed the suitcases under the mattress of the bed and, picking up the letters, his Nimbus 2000 and whatever homework he had completed, headed back into the Diagon alley. Not forgetting to get whatever galleons he still had or to lock the room properly on his way out, of course.

The clerk at the owl post office was a bit surprised when he learned just how much Harry wanted to send, but, hey, it earned him money so he wasn't going to complain... Having watched all of the owls carrying his post fly away, the young Potter glanced at the clock on the post office's wall.

It was still only half past ten, so he had quite a lot of time before he needed to meet with 'doctor' Aoko in Burgess park. And with all of his business in the alley complete, the green-eyed teen decided to move out of his room at the 'Leaky Cauldron' and waste what little remained of his wizarding money at the Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, getting his last taste of the delicious ice cream served there. Yeah, that sounded like a plan!..

* * *

><p>Harry arrived to the Burgess park roughly fifteen minutes before one o'clock. Mostly because he had severely underestimated the difficulty of navigating through the busy streets of London with a trunk, two suitcases and a cage with an owl. But, somehow, there hadn't been any accidents on his way there... And despite the fact that he had arrived before the appointed time, the red-haired scientist was already waiting for him there.<p>

"So,.. This is the pet owl you've been talking about?" Aoko asked as he eyed Hedwig curiously. "She's quite a beauty I must say." Upon hearing that, the snowy owl opened one yellow eye to look at the woman complimenting her. Then she closed it again, presumably going back to sleeping.

"Yeah, she is." Harry confirmed.

"Well then, since you're already here, I don't any point in wasting time. Let's get back inboard of our spaceship, shall we, Mr. Potter?" 'Doctor' Hoshido asked then. Upon the green-eyed teen's nod, she summoned a holographic display through which she requested the permission for the dimensional transfer from the vessel's captain. Of course, the said permission was give to her.

Discreetly creating a barrier around their location to prevent muggles from seeing anything they weren't supposed to see, the red-haired warrant officer created a magical circle. Already knowing what he should do next, Harry dragged himself and his belongings into that circle.

"Ready?" Aoko asked him. He simply nodded in response. And a few seconds the two of them once again were inboard of the investigation spaceship "Leto", which was about to depart from the orbit above the non-administered world 138...

**~/ *** \~**

Almost as soon as he had been returned inboard of the spaceship, Harry was confronted by sub lieutenant Jazz, who in no uncertain terms explained it to him that he wasn't on a cruise ship. Thus, no matter how short his stay aboard would be, he was still supposed to help the crew out by doing various minor tasks, even if he was a civilian. In other words, the duties of washing the dishes and other cleaning jobs were dumped on the young Potter for however much time he'd spend aboard "Leto".

Thus, as soon as the lunch was over, the green-eyed teen was sent to the kitchens to clean the food trays – not the most glorious of the jobs, but someone needed to do it anyway... And once the young Potter was done with the task, he headed back to his room, wishing to get some small rest. He didn't quite make it there as he was intercepted by the warrant officer Hoshido and dragged to her office.

"Alright." 'Doctor' Aoko said as she brought Harry into her, well, laboratory. Which also doubled as the medical bay. "I think it's about time I give you a proper physical, young man. I'm sure that the guys at HQ would appreciate it if they know what they are dealing with when I entrust you to them." The young Potter replied nothing. Not caring for his lack of response, the red-haired scientist ordered: "Alright then, strip to you underwear."

"Do I have to?" The green-eyed teen asked back. Aoko's glare told him that yes, he had too. "Fine..." Harry breathed out. Then he began removing his outer clothes. As his shirt and T-shirt came off, the 'doctor' eyed the scar on his left shoulder critically. She could probably tell that it wasn't something of mundane origin, but for whatever reason she wasn't about to inquire into where exactly he had gotten it.

"Now, lay onto this table so that I can run a few scans." She said, gesturing towards a raised bed, surrounded by a number of machines. Nodding, the young Potter did that. "Now, please, don't move." Once she was sure that he was following her instructions, the 'doctor' pressed something on the display hovering in the air in front of her and a crimson ring of energy that could only be magical in origin appeared at Harry's feet. This ring then began slowly moving towards the green-eyed teen's head...

After maybe half a minute, the ring reached his head and then promptly disappeared, while a numerous images began popping up on Aoko's displays – the young Potter hadn't noticed when, but she had summoned two more while he had been scanned.

"Well, your body is in a passable physical condition." The red-haired warrant officer said. "Though I'd recommend you doing your exercises regularly to build up some more muscle mass. And you should eat more – you're almost skin and bones." Harry let out an unintelligible sound, while cursing the Dursleys in his mind... Meanwhile, Aoko continued: "There also used to be a mana leech in your forehead, but it got burned off with barely a trace left behind when the Lost Logia had merged with your body, so nothing to worry about there." A small pause pause later, she continued: "And we will also need to do something about your eyesight, but that's not a priority thing."

"I wouldn't say 'no' to some better glasses." While they were structurally sound, thanks to a certain spell that repaired things, even Harry himself knew that the lenses weren't a perfect fit for him.

"Why? You can actually have your eyesight completely repaired." The 'doctor' asked. "Unless you like wearing glasses, of course..." The young Potter wasn't sure what to say: he had been wearing glasses for so long that he couldn't actually imagine himself without them anymore. But the thought of not needed them anymore too was tempting. "You don't have to make your mind up right now." Warrant officer Hoshido assured him. "Anyway, I've also managed to learn what Lost Logia you have there." She said, pointing at the green gem stuck in the dark-haired teen's chest.

"Mhm?" Harry prompted her to continue, wanting to know as much about the magical artifact that now was a part of his being as possible.

"As you might remember, it's a class four neutrally aligned Logia. It's recorded name is 'Heart of the Stars' and it essentially is a mana reactor. What it means is that it keeps generating magical energy and shares it with whatever it is connected to. And when it had fused with your body, it had created a connection with your Linker Core."

"Is that good?" The young Potter asked.

"Yes, very much so." 'Doctor' Aoko replied. "The capacity of your Core is only slightly above average, but thanks to the Lost Logia here, as long as you don't throw higher-tier magics around like they are going out of style, you probably will never have to worry about running out of mana." Well, that sounded highly useful, Harry thought to himself. "And while we're on the topic of magic, how about we find what system you are leaning towards?" The red-haired woman asked then. Upon his nod, she added: "But before that, I'll take a sample of your blood. Analyzing it would take some time anyway."

"Oh!" The young Potter cried out involuntary as he was pricked somewhat painfully with a needle. But by the time he was ready to anything about it, 'doctor' Hoshido was already pulling the needle with his blood sample out of his left upper arm.

"Don't be such a baby." The warrant officer told him. "Anyway, let's get to working out your magic system." She said then as she walked into the pretty large empty area in one corner of her office. "Come here." As Harry walked up to her, she continued: "Do you know anything about the magic systems anyway?"

"Nope." The green-eyed teen said as he shook his head.

"Alright then." 'Doctor' Aoko said, entering her lecture mode. "Among the worlds the Bureau is working with, there are two main magical systems being used – Mid-Childan and Belkan ones – with their numerous derivations popping up here and there. Since I'm not feeling like giving a history lesson right now, let's just say that there _is_ a good reason why the practitioners of Belkan magic are quite rare these days and leave it at that..."

"Alright." Harry said with a nod: he could see that it indeed ought to be a long story. And if it was important to understanding the world he was going to become a part of, he could look that story up at a later date himself.

"These two systems..." The red-haired woman continued her lecture. "Have some distinctly-different magical circles associated with them, so unless you're dealing with an exceptionally-rare case of someone who had mastered both systems, you will be able to tell which one is used just by looking at the magical circles used." As Aoko took a step forward, her crimson magical circle came to life under her feet. "I myself and everyone else on this spaceship are the users of the Mid-Childan system. This system, while rather well-rounded, has the majority of its offensive spells as long-range shooting attacks." Harry nodded again, memorizing the information.

"And the Belkan system?" He asked then.

"Well, it's magical circle looks like this." 'Doctor' Hoshido said as a holographic display popped up in front of Harry, showing him a runic triangle with circles at the vertices and a bigger one, overlaid with a strange cross, in the center. "A good deal of the attacks under this system tend to be the short-range anti-personnel ones, but thinking that those are the only ones available within the Belkan system is a great mistake."

"I see..." The young Potter breathed out. Well, that made sense: if you wanted to win the war – and it looked like the magic here was used mainly for fighting – you needed to be able to perform rather well in all sorts of situations...

"Now then, let's finally get to determining what system you lean towards." Aoko said as she dismissed both the display in front of Harry and her magical circle under her feet. "You do know how to draw upon your magic, right?" She asked then. Harry only nodded in response. "Well, then do it." The red-haired woman commanded then.

Nodding again, the green-eyed teen concentrated. He hadn't tried to use his magic without wand, ever. And, truth to be said, he had grow so used to casting with that stick that he wasn't sure that he could do so without. But nevertheless he tried to draw as much of the magical energy as he could from within himself, from his Linker Core.

And, much to his surprise, doing so without a wand in his hands actually turned out to be easier than with it. The eight-points star under his feet appeared to be bigger and brighter than he remembered it to be the two times he had ever seen it before. That, and now it also had some larger runes inscribed inside it at its vertices. And, what's more, looking closer he could see the ghosts of two more 'stars' inside the main one, but those were too faint for him to see any details.

"Now that's something very interesting..." Aoko breathed out after a few long moments of silence. Indeed, the magical 'circle' under Harry's feet didn't come even close to matching those of either Mid-Childan or Belkan systems. It looked like something completely unique. "I guess I will leave the task of determining what your magic system is to the people at the HQ. We will be arriving there by lunch tomorrow anyway." She said finally.

"O-Okay..." The young Potter breathed out. Well, what else he was supposed to say here? The uneasy silence that settled in the 'doctor' Hoshido's office for a few seconds was then broken by a holographic display popping into existence in front of the red-haired woman.

"And here are the results of your blood test." She said while skimming through the data. "Hm... I can see the traces of some unidentified substances in here, but it doesn't look like they are harmful to you, so, I guess, it's OK." Even as she said that, she still made some notes in the file, probably to study the sample in more detail at a later time.

'_Those are likely the basilisk venom and the phoenix tears._' Harry thought to himself, recalling the 'battle' under the Hogwarts castle he had lived through at the end of his second and last year at that school. After all, what else could those 'unidentified substances' be? At least, no other possible candidates came to his mind... Once again the silence settled in the room. "Well..." The green-eyed teen said finally. "If there is nothing else, I think I should go back to my duties before sub lieutenant gets really angry at me for being such a lazy bum."

"Yeah." Aoko said. "I guess, I indeed have taken enough of your time." Nodding, the young Potter walked up to the chair where his clothes lay and began dressing...

**~/ *** \~**

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore barely made a step into his office after a long and rather tiresome morning at the Ministry for Magic, when his floo came to life as Molly Weasley's head appeared surrounded by the green flames.

"I'm coming through." The witch demanded. The Hogwarts headmaster had no idea what kind of emergency could cause her to seek him with such expedition, but it likely was something very very important. Otherwise she'd have resorted to owl post or something like that... Nodding, he lifted the wards over his fireplace to let the matriarch of the Weasley clan come in.

"What had happened, Molly?" He asked.

"Explain this!" The woman demanded as she pushed a piece of paper – not of a parchment everyone in the magical Britain was using, but of a honest to Merlin muggle paper – into his face. Picking the said sheet of paper out of Molly's hands, Dumbledore skimmed through it. Apparently, it was a letter Harry had sent to Ron about not coming to Hogwarts and moving away to an undisclosed location, and...

"Oh my!.." The aged warlock exclaimed as the message finally sank into his mind. If what the young Harry had said in this letter was indeed true, than... Heck, he wasn't even sure how to characterize such a situation properly. Hoping beyond hope that his the young Potter's trace could still be picked up, the Hogwarts headmaster rushed to a small table in the corner of his room that was cluttered with many silvery magical instruments.

Unfortunately, it looked like his hopes were in vain as not even a single of his monitoring devices was still working. The Boy Who Lived somehow managed to do what Albus believed to be impossible and completely disappeared, without leaving even a trace behind. And what was even more troubling, the device that was supposed to be showing the direction towards where the boy was,.. Its hand was pointing up towards the skies in the general direction of London.

Dumbledore had heard the muggle stories about abductions done by the aliens many times. But until this time he had believed them all to be pure fiction... Maybe it was time to change that opinion as nothing else could explain the strange last reading he had on this device. After all, to get out of its range while going in that direction one indeed needed to go into the space...

Suddenly feeling as old as he really was, the Hogwarts headmaster collapsed into his armchair. If his worst fears came to pass – and all things pointed towards the fact that they actually did – then young Harry was way out of his reach. Still, maybe not everything was lost yet... Phoenixes were known to be able to travel anywhere for a reason. If the green-eyed Potter was somehow still on Earth, then Fawkes surely would be able to reach him! So, the old warlock asked his fiery familiar to flash over to where the wayward teen was. Alas, the sorry note Fawkes sang told Dumbledore that even his phoenix couldn't get to Harry anymore.

"I'm still waiting!" Mrs. Weasley chose this very moment to remind the Hogwarts headmaster that she was still in his office and still waiting for an explanation. "What is the meaning of this letter, Albus?"

"Truth to be said, Molly, I don't know." The aged warlock replied, fixing his no longer twinkling eyes on those of the Weasley matriarch. "I honestly have no idea what's going on. I know that the recent events had made the life quite a bit harder for young Harry, but I would have never believed that he would choose to run away..."

"What do you mean, professor?" The plump witch asked.

"Well, you see, Molly, about a week ago, apparently, young Harry had suffered an unfortunate incident that made it really hard for him to cast magic. Even Garrick himself said that none of the wands at his shop would work for Mr. Potter." The Hogwarts headmaster explained. "And, because of that, no matter how much it pained me to do so, I had to tell him that until his condition improves, there is little Hogwarts can do for him in regards to his education..." He made a pause here. "Apparently I've said that a little too harshly, and unwittingly made young Harry believe that we don't want him anymore. He probably just ran away, though I'm not sure how he managed to escape my tracking devices – not even that cloak of his could fool all of them."

"B-But!.." The Weasley matriarch protested. "But surely he wouldn't have run away just like that. I'm sure someone had kidnapped him! And sent these letters to keep us from looking for him. Merlin, those bastards even took Harry's broom from him and sent it Ron! I don't believe Harry would have parted with it out of his own free will!" Well, the fact that the young Potter's broom was sent to the Weasleys certainly made the whole thing even more complicated, Albus thought.

"Have you checked it? Were there any curses on it?" He asked then.

"None that we could find ourselves." Molly replied. "Bill will come home tomorrow and we'll ask him to double-check. Merlin knows, that boy knows how to find even the nastiest of curses!" While it was clear that the witch didn't really approve her eldest son's career choice, she still believed him to be a highly-knowledgeable and very skilled curse-breaker.

"Do you want me to take a look at it as well?" The Hogwarts headmaster asked next.

"If you don't mind." Molly said. "We all know that your time is much valuable, professor." Albus shook his head at that.

"Be as it may, the life and well-being of a student takes precedence over anything else for me. I'm an educator first and Chief Warlock of Wizengamot only second... Though, if you don't mind, I'd rather have a few more minutes to rest my old bones. I'm not as young as I used to be anymore, and today certainly was an eventful day, even before your unexpected visit, Molly." He said.

"Of course, professor." The Weasley matriarch replied. "And thank you for your help. I'm sure we will have Harry back, safe and sound, very soon."

"I really hope you are right." The Hogwarts headmaster said with a sigh. "Let us hope that young Harry is alright, wherever he is, and that he will soon change his mind and come back to his friends."

**~/ *** \~**

Harry sighed softly as he placed the last of the food trays he had to wash tonight onto the rack. He really had no problems with this as he really owed these people for giving him a chance to use his magic again, when the wizarding Britain, apparently, gave up on him because he couldn't use a wand properly anymore. Helping them with these minor tasks was the least he could do for them...

And now that he was done for the evening, he was free to do anything he wanted. Provided that he didn't disturb or impede the actual crew in any way, of course. Not that he had any intentions to. Today was a tiresome day for him and he'd rather go to bed now – he was sure that sub lieutenant Jazz would never let him to lie in, no matter what... But before he could call it a day, the green-eyed teen thought, he still needed to feed Hedwig.

* * *

><p>"Here you go, girl." The young Potter cooed as he fed the meat cuts to his owl. Apparently, she too found this alien food to be at least somewhat tasty, even if Harry himself had no idea about its origins. Only that it didn't come from Earth, or, as he should probably call it from now on, non-administered world 138.<p>

Done with her meal, Hedwig tried to open the door of her cage with her beak, but couldn't do that as the green-eyed teen had locked it. After all, he was sure that the spacecraft's crew would not appreciate a live owl flying through the corridors. Too bad, the owl in question didn't quite agree with being incarcerated in her cage for however long it would take "Leto" to reach the TSAB HQ.

"Sorry, girl." The green-eyed tried to placate his owl. "But I can't let you out just yet... Don't worry, though, they promised we'd arrive to our new home soon. And, I'm sure, you'll be able to fly as much as you like there." That seemed to work somewhat as Hedwig stopped trying to force her way out of the cage. Though, she still looked highly discontent. Then she demonstratively turned around on her perch and, apparently, went to sleep.

With a heavy sigh, Harry walked up to his bed and lay down on it. He really didn't know what his life in this new world would be, but he still maintained a positive outlook: the magic, however different it now was, was still with him, and he was on the way to the place where the people will do their best to teach him how to wield it properly. And, judging by what 'doctor' Hoshido had told him about the central world of the confederation, Mid-Childa was a nice planet to live on. He really hoped that she wasn't wrong about that... With that thought in his mind, Harry drifted off into the land of dreams.

**~/ *** \~**

Dimensional space – also called 'the sea of dimensions' – was an interesting place. While it lacked any real features besides the ever-changing clouds of all possible colors here and there, it still was the world between worlds, the very core of the universe everyone lived in. And, according to 'doctor' Aoko, the TSAB headquarters were located somewhere deep withing it.

So, when he wasn't doing anything else – not that he really had that much free time, thanks to all of the jobs sub lieutenant Jazz had dumped on him – Harry found himself sitting by some porthole window, watching the colorful clouds of the dimensional space float by as the spaceship "Leto" carried him towards the Bureau's HQ. He tried imagining the looks those headquarters would have, but somehow he couldn't think of anything grand enough to befit the main office of such an inter-dimensional organization.

Well... He will see it with his own eyes soon enough, he guessed. After all, they were supposed to arrive there in just a little bit more than three hours, if what the red-haired scientist has told him was true. And, until then, all he could do was waiting...

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	5. At the headquarters

The fifth chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>chm01<strong>, I've answered your review via PMs.  
><strong>Impstar<strong>, sorry, his learning to kick asses will start only somewhere between chapters 6 and 7. Or just in chapter 7...  
><strong>serialkeller<strong>, thank you, and fixed.  
><strong>lordamnesia<strong>, **Opinr**, **thunder18**, **karthik9**, **Penny is wise**, **Jose19**, **fellow**, **FateBurn**, **Ranmaleopard**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>Guest<strong>, **HellsMaji**, somewhat fixed by the contents of chapter 6, where he himself realizes this.  
><strong>ultima-owner<strong>, well, yeah. Though, the speed at which his mana recovers is still limited. He won't be able to throw nuke-level spells continuously. And given that the 'default' size of his core is not THAT big, some spells (**Ragnarok**, **Diabolic Emission** et al) might be entirely out of his league. Simply because he can't amass enough energy to fuel them at once.  
><strong>The 10th Wand<strong>, ah... wasn't it at least hinted in the AN to the previous chapter? But to make it explicit, Harry comes in contact with his Lost Logia almost exactly seventeen months before the conclusion of _**A's**_.  
><strong>voidzzz<strong>, as far as I can see it based on my own impression from anime and the data on wikia, magical circles in "_**Nanoha**_" are a visual effect happening when a mage/knight/whatever is drawing upon his or her mana extensively. And, if you notice, the circle is always the same no matter what spell is used (with two exceptions: summoning magic and group casting by Wolkenritter) - it is always either Mid-Childan circle, or Belkan triangle. With IS template and Eclipse star later on.  
><strong>aliestrikehero<strong>, considering that he will be 14 when Nanoha and co are 10... There are some problems with them being paired together. Thankfully, there are other ladies around for Harry to woo... One of them might even have silver hair and red eyes. ;)  
><strong>Thracer<strong>, Harry will always lose to Nanoha or Fate in a direct combat (he is a glass cannon), but should their fight somehow devolve into a battle of attrition, he will be the winner instead (he has a Logia-powered mana regeneration). So, all in all, he will be stuck somewhere around AA or AAA rank, while the aces are S+ or higher in _**StrikerS**_. As for the second part of your review... Well, not a panic, but he will realize that some manipulation had been used to make him join TSAB.

*** AN**: Finally, some characters canonical to "_**Nanoha**_"-verse make their appearance in the story. I'm sure everyone who had watched _**A's**_ knows who Gil Graham is. Mariel Atenza is a bit trickier, given her rather minor roles in the _**A's**_ and the sequels, but she is there. In particular, in _**A's**_, she was the one to report Nanoha's and Fate's devices requesting cartridge systems for themselves.

And to those noting peculiarities in my English - English is not my native language, and while I tend to believe that I know it sufficiently-well, I sometimes slip into using punctuation and sentence structures according to the rules of my native language.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Disclaimer<em>**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter V: At the headquarters**

The Time-Space Administration Bureau headquarters turned out to be even more impressive than Harry imagined them. It was a city-sized space station that looked like an irregular three-dimensional compass rose with a few incomplete rings surrounding it. And even though it appeared to be still under construction, it was still very very grandiose.

And it only became more and more grandiose in Harry's eyes as the spaceship "Leto" he was inboard of got closer and closer to this mountainous fortress of a space station. By now the headquarters were already taking the entirety of the sky he could see from his window and more, and it was still more than a couple of miles away. The green-eyed teen found it nigh-impossible to believe that something that big created by humans could really exist, magic or no magic...

* * *

><p>While the metallic walls of the docks where "Leto" was parked lacked any interesting features – unless one found various equipment for space-battleship maintenance to be interesting – it was still hard to wrap one's mind around the fact that this fortress-like space station had internal docks. And not just a few of those either. The docks here could probably house entire fleets!<p>

Harry was brought out of his thoughts about the hugeness of the Bureau headquarters when 'doctor' Aoko, who had somehow approached him unnoticed, made her presence known.

"Mr. Potter,.." She said, before somewhat unexpectedly also calling him by his first name. "...Captain Ducato and I are leaving the ship to give the counter admiral in charge of our fleet a report on our mission. Everyone else, and this includes you as well, is to stay inboard until captain dismisses you." The green-eyed teen nodded. This was kind of expected.

"Alright." He said.

"Anyway,.." The red-haired scientist continued: "Depending on how the things go up there in the office, you might end up transferred away before the day is over. Most likely to the Magitek Research Department on Mid-Childa, though there are other possibilities as well... That said, you are a very interesting person, Mr. Potter, it was a pleasure to work with you for these past two days. I hope we meet again some day." With those words, Aoko extended her hand. It took Harry's mind a few moments to catch up with what was going on, but once it happened, he accepted it and the two of them shook their hands. It was somewhat a strange feeling, to be treated like an adult, but he certainly liked it.

"T-Thank you, ma'am." The young Potter said then, but 'doctor' Hoshido merely waved her hand dismissively in response. She then turned on her heels and made a couple of step towards the transportation chamber, before stopping.

"One more thing, I've noticed that you appear to be, let's say, unfamiliar with computers." She said. Harry could only nod in response. He had, of course, seen a computer – how could he not when Dudley got one for his birthday this year? – but he had never touched one. "Then why don't you ask warrant officer Aoba to show you the basics, while you all are stuck in there?" Aoko asked then. "You know, that guy is "Leto"'s chief engineer and he is the one in charge of the navigation and sensory systems, he knows his stuff." And after a short pause, she added with a small smile: "And since you've become a small pet project of ours, we can't have you go into the big life completely unprepared, now can we?"

By the time Harry had mustered his words for a reply, 'doctor' Aoko Hoshido was already gone...

**~/ *** \~**

"Good day, counter admiral Graham!" Captain David Ducato of investigative spaceship "Leto" saluted as he entered his superior's office. Next to him, warrant officer Aoko Hoshido, who came along to help him with this task, did the same.

"At ease." The counter admiral said as he saluted back. Closing the numerous holographic displays with whatever work he had been doing until now, Gil Graham stood up from behind his table and walked up to the "Leto"'s captain and the two of them exchanged a handshake. "Have a seat." He said then as he invited them to the 'guest' part of his office that had a pair of comfortable sofas around a small table. "Tea? Coffee?" He asked once they all were seated.

"No, thank you, sir!" Both of his guests, replied simultaneously.

"Alright then." The counter admiral said. "I will take it that your most recent mission went without any major problems, despite running into a Lost Logia on the non-administered world 138." Captain Ducato nodded as he placed the printed version of his report onto the table.

"Yes, sir. The patrol went smoothly and we've not run into any troubles, though, there was a significant delay with our return due to the Lost Logia we've ran across. Locating and securing it took some unexpectedly-long time. Warrant officer Hoshido will give you more information about that." The red-haired scientist nodded as she added her own papers to those already present on the table.

"As was reported to you by captain thirteen days ago, a class four neutrally-aligned Lost Logia had been detected on the surface of the non-administered world 138." Aoko reported. "It then went silent for ten days, before reemerging again. We were then able to successfully locate and secure it then."

"I've heard from your earlier reports that the Logia has actually merged with a body of a local civilian." Counter admiral Graham commented.

"Yes, this is indeed so." 'Doctor' Hoshido said with a nod. "The said local is a thirteen years old boy by the name of Harry James Potter. He does not have proper magical training and his Linker Core appears to be underdeveloped because of that. Whether it is a genetic anomaly or the result of the interference by the Lost Logia, but it appears that his magic does not conform to the known systems. It was decided that the further tests should be conducted by the Magitek Research Department."

"A sound decision." Gil Graham agreed, while flipping through the printed version of her report, in particular, through the section that described this teen's magic and the 'circle' it manifested when drawn upon. He had to agree with the warrant officer here: that eight-pointed star indeed didn't look like anything that belonged either to Mid-Childan or to Belkan systems. "Did Mr. Potter agree to come with you willingly?" He asked then.

"Despite rough handling he had been subjected to in the beginning due to our false assumption of him being a part of some illegal group, he indeed came with us out of his own free will." Aoko said, before expanding upon it: "However, I believe it was mostly because we were the lesser of the two evils he was facing at the time, so to speak. I didn't manage to get much out of him, but it appears that coming in contact with the Lost Logia the way it had happened for him had destroyed his old life."

"I see..." Counter admiral Graham said. While not to such an extreme, it could be said that he himself had gone through something somewhat similar when he had saved a wounded TSAB mage some fifty years ago. Now, however, was not the time to delve into the ocean of memories... "So, what are your recommendations in handling this case? I don't think we've ever seen a human successfully merged with a Lost Logia without immediate negative effects."

"I'd recommend further tests to determine the properties and limitations of his system of magic and what effects does the Logia have on him." The red-haired scientist replied. "And once it was proven that he can safely handle serious magical exertions, his real training should be started. Someone who has the potential to use B-rank spells, possibly even A-rank ones, without running out of mana mustn't be ignored." The counter admiral nodded.

"It's too bad that this Mr. Potter is completely untrained, though..." He said dreamily after a short pause. "I'm sure, Chrono-kun wouldn't have minded a new training partner for himself..."

"Absolutely no, sir. Not until it is confirmed that whichever style of magic Mr. Potter is exhibiting, it can be safely and reliably controlled." Aoko protested. Gil Graham just waved his hand dismissively.

"Of course, of course. I know that quite well... It's just,.." He made a short pause before continuing: "I'm afraid that if young Chrono-kun continues training exclusively with Aria and Lotte, it might soon reach the point where it would start doing him more harm than good. And I absolutely can't let late Harlaown-dono down like that."

"Yes, sir." 'Doctor' Hoshido replied.

"Anyway,.." Counter admiral Graham continued meanwhile: "I believe we have deviated somewhat from the original topic of our discussion. Namely, what should we do with Mr. Potter until we deem him ready to enter our ranks." After a moment, he added: "So far, we've agreed that he should be placed into the care of Magitek Research Department." Both Aoko and captain Ducato nodded here. "And where he'll go from there... Well, that surely should depend on what strengths and weaknesses he displays during the tests and the initial steps of his training. If what you say about his potential ability to cast mid-level spells indefinitely is true, I'd like to eventually have him in the Dimensional Navy. Of course, if it turns out that other branches of the Bureau might suit him better,.."

"Yes, sir." The other two mages agreed.

"Then it is settled." The counter admiral summarized. "I shall give the Research Department a call now. They had been notified that I might be sending your, shall we say, findings their way, when you first reported locating a Lost Logia on the non-administered world 138. If they still have someone on stand by – as they should – we can have Mr. Potter on his way to Mid-Childa by the dinner time." And while no man of the "Leto"'s crew would admit it out aloud, having a civilian aboard of a military patrol ship was troublesome. After all, sub lieutenant Jazz kept piling those jobs on the kid not because he was a sadist – it was to keep Mr. Potter as busy and out of their ways as possible.

"Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!" 'Doctor' Aoko and captain Ducato chorused.

"Now then,.." Counter admiral Graham continued: "According to your reports, your vessel is in a good condition and there is no need for extraordinary repairs." The captain of spaceship "Leto" nodded. "However, given that high-threat criminal Jail Scaglietti continues to elude our forces and, according to some reports, began building his own ones now, it might not be a bad idea to have some additional equipment installed inboard of "Leto". Some of his suppliers and agents might prove themselves to be confrontational, should you accidentally run across them." He said.

"Are you sure about this, sir?" Captain David Ducato asked. "Given the shortage of resources the Dimensional Navy is still experiencing after _that incident_, shouldn't the other vessels, the ones that go into less peaceful territories, receive these upgrades first?" As his superior didn't answer this question, the Nick Fury-lookalike sighed. "Alright, I will consider this, but I still need to think for a little while before I can give you my final decision, sir."

"Of course, captain." Gil Graham said. "Now, if there is nothing else to be discussed right now, let me summon the representatives of the Research Department here." Upon the nods from the two officers, the counter admiral summoned a holographic display and initiated a video call to the Magitek Research Department's main office on Mid-Childa...

**~/ *** \~**

Given how easily warrant officer Aoba was convinced to give him a crash course in using computers, Harry strongly suspected 'doctor' Aoko's hand in it. But, of course, there was no way for him to prove this... Anyhow, his first lesson in informatics so far was going pretty well. Not that there was anything difficult in navigating through the file system and editing some text files... And "Leto"'s chief engineer was about to start the green-eyed teen's next lesson, when they were interrupted by sub lieutenant Jazz.

"Potter." The bald officer said. "Go to your room and pack get to packing your things. The men from the Magitek Research Department will be there in half an hour to pick you up. You better be ready by then." And not even carrying about whether the teenaged Earthling with give him an answer according to the protocols or not, Jazz walked away.

"Well... It looks like it's time for me to go." Harry said to his 'teacher'. "Thank you for the lesson, warrant officer." Aoba just waved his hands dismissively.

"Don't mention it, kid. It's not like I have much else to do right now anyway." That was probably at least a partial lie as "Leto" was in docks, but, whatever. Thanking the man again for his lesson, the young Potter headed to his room. There weren't many things he needed to pack, but, like sub lieutenant Jazz had said, he better be ready by the time his new minders arrived. First impressions were important after all...

* * *

><p>Twenty five minutes later, Harry dragged his trunk and two suitcases as well as Hedwig in her cage to the 'parade' entrance of the spaceship that had housed him for the last two days. Of course, at the moment the said entrance – or exit, as the case might be – was blocked by sub lieutenant Jazz, who was making sure that no one sneaked in or out without his captain's approval.<p>

"Well, at least you can move fast when you need to, brat." The man said as he crossed his arms on his chest. "But you're still not leaving until the representative from RD arrives." Shrugging in response, the green-eyed teen placed his luggage on the floor and leaned against the wall. He needn't have waited for long as those representatives arrived to the docks maybe just five minutes later.

The group of two was led by a thirty-something years old brown-eyed woman with rather short disheveled blonde hair. Her clothes consisted of brownish uniform of TSAB Ground Forces with a lab coat thrown over it. She was also carrying a few official-looking papers in her hands. Following her a few steps behind was a somewhat-shy girl with short dirty-green hair and yellow eyes behind round glasses. She appeared to be just a couple of years older than Harry himself was, and the uniform under her own lab coat suggested that she, unlike her boss, belonged to Dimensional Navy instead...

The older woman then approached sub lieutenant Jazz and, after giving him a salute – with her companion doing the same – handed the papers she was carrying over to him. The bald man returned the salute, before accepting those documents. He then took his time to read through them, but, eventually, he signed them in a few places, before returning the half of them back to the blond woman.

"Brat!" Jazz called out, even if the said teen was already looking in his direction. "These two are warrant officer Kyoko Chidori and cadet Mariel Atenza from the Magitek Research Department. They will be taking you to Mid-Childa."

"Yes, sir." Harry replied, doing his best not to show it on his face that he'd rather not be addressed in such a way in front of the people whose care he'll be in in the foreseeable future. No, those two probably already knew his name, but still... He'd rather be addressed to as 'Mr. Potter' or something along those lines instead of just 'brat' the first time he met them.

"You must be Mr. Potter then." The older of the two RD representatives, Kyoko Chidori, said as she turned to look at him. Harry nodded. She then turned to her apparent protege. "Mary, our shuttle will be ready to leave for Mid-Childa in two hours. Can you entertain Mr. Potter until then? I still need to finish my conversation with Aoko-sempai."

"Y-yes, ma'am!" The green-haired girl nodded and then made a few steps towards the young Earthling, who already had picked his belongings up. "S-shall we go then?" She asked him then.

"A-Alright." Harry replied after a second or two. The girl – Mariel – gave him a small smile. Then she turned around and began walking at a rather slow pace. After a moment of just standing there, the young Potter hurried after her. Well, hurried as much as someone with just two hands and four bulky and heavy pieces of luggage can hurry...

* * *

><p>"Ano... Aren't those things heavy?" Mary asked as the two of them were about to leave the docks and enter the administration part of the TSAB headquarters. "I can help you if you want."<p>

"Yeah, can you carry her for me?" The young Potter asked as he lifted Hedwig's cage a little higher. He wasn't about to entrust the trunk with his personal things or his suitcases with his seed money – well, the goods he would use to get those – to her just yet. The green-haired girl nodded and took the cage from him. "Thank you." Harry said while rearranging his hold the rest of his luggage into a more comfortable one.

"That's no trouble for me." She replied cheerfully, while raising the cage she was now carrying to her eyes' level. "Your bird is beautiful." Upon hearing that, Hedwig opened one of her yellow eyes to look at the speaker, before promptly going back to sleep. "What's she?" The question surprised the young Potter for a moment, but then he remembered that he was in what could as well be the center of an interstellar confederation. The chances were, Mariel was from a different planet than him, and her home world had no owls living on it.

"Her name is Hedwig and she's a polar owl." Harry replied helpfully, making the girl adopt a surprised expression on her face.

"You lived behind the polar circle?" She asked. "You look like someone from the more temperate zones..." Then she mumbled something about wishing she got it right and didn't even up embarrassing herself because she wasn't very good at biology and general planetary geography.

"No, I didn't. A friend of mine gifted her to me on my eleventh birthday." The young Potter replied.

"Oh." Mariel breathed out. There was about half a minute of silence then, before the green-haired girl spoke again: "Say,.. There is still quite a bit of time before our shuttle will be ready. Wanna go get something to eat?" Well, Harry thought, he wouldn't mind having some midday snack, but...

"Would it be alright? I don't have your money ...yet." Mary shook her head.

"Don't worry about that, as long as we don't order anything outrageous, the Bureau will compensate the expenses. Especially since they are the ones who want you here." That certainly made some sense...

"Well, alright then." The young Potter said. "Lead the way."

* * *

><p>After flipping through the menus of some cafe Mary had chosen, they both had settled for some tea and desserts. And a few strips of raw meat for Hedwig, of course...<p>

"So..." The green-eyed girl began. "Since it looks like we will be working together for at least a little while, how about tell each other a few things about ourselves?" Harry nodded: that sounded quite reasonable. Especially since he indeed would be stuck in some Magitek Research Department's laboratory in the foreseeable future.

"Alright." He said. After a small pause he continued. "Well... If you have seen my file, you should know that I'm Harry Potter, and I was born on Earth. Though, they tell me, it's not the only world that goes by that name, so I should call my home planet 'non-administered world 138' instead." He paused, thinking about what he should say next... Him companion, though, decided that it was now her turn to begin introducing herself properly.

"My name is Mariel Atenza, though everyone calls me Mary, and I was born and raised up on Mid-Childa. I wanted to go into the Dimensional Navy, but I'm not really that good of a mage... My talents are in hardware maintenance, programming and research. So I got scouted into the Research Department by Kyoko-sensei. Now I know that I want to become a great Device Meister, just like her!" She said cheerfully.

So, she wanted to be a wand-maker, Harry translated into the terminology he was more used to. After all, the devices – as far as 'doctor' Aoko had explained him – were the technological foci used to assist mage in casting spells and regulating his or her mana flow. Many of them, being magical computers, also had other functions, such as voice and video recording, language translation, communication modules and whatever else one could think of.

"That's good." The young Potter commented. "I kinda learned about this whole mage thing just a couple of days ago, when "Leto" picked me up. So I have no idea what kind of profession I want to pursue in the future." Well, while not really averse to the idea of becoming a part of military, magical or otherwise, Harry indeed wasn't sure whether he actually wanted that or not.

"I'm sure, you will find something that you like doing." Mary said. "There are so many professions out there, one of them surely will be just meant for you. Who knows, maybe you will even become a Device Meister too!" The dark-haired teen just shook his head at that thought. While his lessons in informatics with warrant officer Aoba weren't hard, he didn't think he was good enough to actually be capable of programming the devices... The two of them continued their small talk for a little while, until it was time for them to head for the shuttle that would take them to Mid-Childa...

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	6. Arriving to Mid-Childa

The sixth chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>lordamnesia<strong>, alas, science will mostly start the next chapter. The same goes for Harry's magical training as well, **Impstar**.  
><strong>Ranmaleopard<strong>, **Opinr**, **Jose19**, **FateBurn**, **ultima-owner**, **geetac**, **serialkeller**, **thunder18**, **art9000**, **karthik9**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>DalekDavros<strong>, Deathly Hallows as Lost Logia?.. In my opinion, only the stone has a chance of being classified as one - it does have the power to call the spirits of the dead back into world of living. Even then, it would be level 5 or something like that... The cloak is just an optical camouflage. As great as it may be, it is nothing really special in terms of power or even utility - _**Wide Area Search**_ will penetrate it without any doubts... And the wand? It isn't even really confirmed to be any better than a normal wand, why would it be good enough to be called Lost Logia?  
><strong>Lethum<strong>, it isn't yet introduced to TSAB forces at this point. And it won't be until December 0065. Right now is August 0064. But when it becomes available, well, who knows...  
><strong>SonicAnime2010<strong>, replied to you via PM.  
><strong>aliestrikehero<strong>, need I remind you that the Aces were 9 or 10 during the conclusion of the Book of Darkness incident? And while I don't have problems with pairing Hayate (I'm a supporter of Nano/Fate and would rather not break it) with Harry, the problem is in how Harry will be viewing them. The difference of four years at their ages is a huge one, and it will take a lot of time and work for Harry to stop viewing her as a child. Especially given that some more mature options will be around.  
><strong>Penny is wise<strong>, I will give you the spoiler that Harry's device will have the active form of a clawed gauntlet.

*** AN**: I know, I'm going to take a lot of flak for this chapter, mostly because it will yet again be a transition one. But, please, bear with it as the next one will finally contain some action as well as Harry learning some actual Nanoha-style magic. And, of course, he will finally be getting his device.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Disclaimer<em>**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter VI: Arriving to Mid-Childa**

Looking from space, the planet of Mid-Childa actually looked somewhat similar to Earth: the oceans were crystal-blue and the landmasses were mostly green-and-brown; even the ice capes at the poles looked a bit like those found on Earth. The contours of the continents and a few extra moons, though, were a reminder to the green-eyed teen that he was looking at a completely different world.

As the shuttle entered the atmosphere and began approaching the surface and the young Potter got a bird-eye's view of the of the planet's capital, Cranagan. It was a huge megalopolis many times bigger than London, dominated by a towering building of Bureau's central office for this world and the skyscrapers surrounding it. The rest of the city also didn't really look like anything that could be found on Earth either... It was too clean and full of crystal spires to be something that could have existed on Harry's home world.

And while the green-eyed teen tried to see as much of the city as he could through the porthole, the shuttle continued on its ways towards the towers occupied by the TSAB offices – apparently, the Magitek Research Department was located somewhere there. Indeed, by the time the shuttle passed through the barrier surrounding the whole complex, Harry could see the department's emblem on the side of one of the lesser towers. However, instead of flying directly there, like the young Potter had almost expected it to, the shuttle was directed to a small airfield sitting next to the base of the monstrous central tower.

"Alright." Kyoko Chidori said as the shuttle began landing. "Considering that the last few days must have been very stressful for you, Mr. Potter, you will be given three days to settle in properly." Harry nodded, happy that he wasn't expected to plunge into 'work' right away. "However, before you can rest for tonight, you should get a proper identity card." The green-eyed teen nodded again: it was unlikely that these people would readily accept any documents from an non-administered world like Earth. Not that he had even those...

"Before going to the Migration Services, if that is possible, I'd like to drop my things off somewhere." The young Potter said, hoping beyond hope that he won't have to tow his luggage with him to wherever he'll be getting his documents; today had been a long day for him, and he was tired, so cut him some slack. He was a bit surprised, when the blond warrant officer nodded.

"Of course. Shall we go have you lodged in first then?" She asked then, just as the shuttle they were in touched the airfield.

* * *

><p>It came as a small surprise for Harry that the Magitek Research Department had its own hostel with the rooms for the guests or the personnel that didn't have their own apartments or houses. But he certainly was glad about that as the rooms there were fantastic. The one he will be living in for the time being was probably as big as the entire first floor at Number 4! Even by just looking around, he could already tell that he would absolute love living in it.<p>

However, since he was still expected to get his identity card tonight, the young Potter had no time to explore the room right now. Thus, after dropping his things off there – and opening the cage to let Hedwig out, of course – Harry once again found himself following 'doctor' Kyoko Chidori through the huge administrative complex that the Bureau's central office was...

The Migration Services was located in another lesser tower on the lower floors. And knowing just how big of an organization the TSAB was, the young Potter was quite surprised to see no queues there. Then again, it was way past eight in the evening by the local time, so... And while he was busy looking round the high-tech hall, 'doctor' Chidori exchanged a few words with one of the clerks, which ended with the said clerk inviting the green-eyed teen into a cubicle-like office.

First thing first, Harry was told to place his hands on a special device, which, apparently, took his fingerprints as well as his magic signature. And only when no previous records of him were found withing the Bureau's archives, the actual process of creating a new identity card for him began. He was asked a number of standard questions, like his name, home world and date of birth. During the latter one he had slipped up a little and he to be corrected by warrant officer Chidori, who pointed it out that the administered worlds used a different calendar and, thus, his year of birth would be 0051 and not 1980 A.D.. The final question was about his current occupation. And here the blond-haired scientist gave an answer in his place: according to her, he was a 'Civilian Collaborator to the Magitek Research Department of the TSAB'... That certainly sounded better than a 'lab rat', the young Potter noted.

Once all of the clerk's questions were answered, Harry's identity card was created. It was indeed a card and looked not quite different from a driving license card the green-eyed teen had seen in his uncle's wallet. It contained his photo, full name, date and place of his birth and a chip, which obviously held the rest of his personal information.

"While recovering your ID card isn't exactly a hard thing to do, you still should take a good care of it and you better never lose it." 'Doctor' Kyoko commented as she walked Harry back to his room at the RD's hostel. The young Potter had nodded in acknowledgment of that, while thanking the woman for helping him in obtaining the said identity card...

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning the green-eyed teen woke up quite early; not that it was a problem for him as he was used to getting up at the crack of dawn... Hedwig's cage was empty, meaning that the snowy owl was still out, exploring the new world and hunting for her own meal.

After going through his morning routine, Harry busied himself with laying his possessions out into the various wardrobes and cabinets found in his room as he waited for someone to show up and give him a tour around the department's facilities. After all, he at the moment he still had no idea where the cafeterias or the laboratories and lecture halls were.

It was around fifteen minutes to eight in the morning when someone had knocked on his door. And opening the said door, the young Potter found himself face to face with Mariel, who looked like she'd rather spend another couple of hours in her bed – apparently, the green-haired glasses-wearing girl was not a morning person. The two of them exchanged the greetings and then Harry found himself following his guide through the corridors as she led him towards some cafeteria so that they could grab a bite for their breakfast.

They were soon joined there by 'doctor' Kyoko and her other apprentice, a girl with short brown hair and somewhat reddish-brown eyes, who went by the name of Amy Limietta. Apparently, she was also Mary's sempai. Aside from the round of introductions, though, the meal was spent mostly in silence.

"Mr. Potter,.." The blond scientist said as they were leaving the cafeteria. "I know, I've promised you three days off, but I would still like it if you dropped by my office sometime today. There is a test I would like you to try and pass – and depending on your results, I might assign you some supplementary courses." Harry raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of a test?" He asked, curious about what kind of an experiment 'doctor' Chidori wanted to run on him. Actually, scratch that, the wording of a request made it sound like she was going to examine his knowledge or something like that.

"As might already know, the spells of both Mid-Childan and Belkan systems is something that can be described through mathematical formulas. And the chances are, whatever system your magic is, it will be the same." The warrant officer answered. "Thus, I want to see how good you are in algebra and analytic geometry. Informatics and programming too, as you will undoubtedly find them useful once we get you a device." Harry nodded. If being good in those subjects was helpful in casting spells, learning them made sense.

"Alright." He said. And, deciding that the sooner he started those tests, the sooner it all will be over, he added: "Lead the way."

* * *

><p>As it turned out, Harry had been a bit too optimistic about how quickly he could pass those tests... He had utterly failed the mathematics one – then again, according to 'doctor' Chidori, a good deal of it would be considered university-level material on his home world. Something that a thirteen-years-old like him wouldn't know a thing about under normal circumstances.<p>

And his test in computer science went only marginally better. Thanks to the introduction lesson that warrant officer Aoba of the investigative spaceship "Leto" had taught him, he managed to solve the first couple of tasks... But there were fifty of those in total, with the final ones being so hard that the young Potter had not a single idea how someone might be capable of solving them at all, much less within a very limited time.

At least, the blond scientist whose care he was under didn't seem to be too unhappy about his lack of knowledge about the sciences that apparently drove Magitek. That, of course, didn't mean that she wasn't going to do her damn best to rectify the situation: by the time she finished sorting out his tests, Harry was given a whole stack of thick tomes that he was supposed to study the higher mathematics and computer science theories from. And, as an extra load, there also was a couple of the books on the administrated worlds' laws added into the mix.

While no one expected him to learn everything in those books by the end of the week or something like that, the young Potter had no doubts in his mind that his self-study will cut into his free time significantly. Oh well... At least, it looked like the theories discussed in those tomes would really help him in understanding and controlling his 'new' magic...

**~/ *** \~**

Now that he began settling down on this world which would be his new home in the foreseeable future, Harry finally found some time to look back and think about the events of the past few days that had altered his life oh so much.

And one thing that he noticed almost immediately was the fact that "Leto"'s crew had more or less forced him into leaving the Earth and aligning himself with the Bureau. This made the young Potter angry, but only for a little while as he soon came to a conclusion that he would have went with them even if they hadn't resorted to those manipulations. The TSAB was indeed the only place that could reasonably provide him with both the protection from those seeking to use his Lost Logia for their own nefarious ends and could give him the knowledge of how to access and use his new magic properly.

If he were to be angry at the "Leto"'s crew for something, then it would be the apparent lack of regret for rough-handling him on the part of the privates and sub lieutenant Jazz. Neither of those three had said as much as simple 'sorry' for treating him like a war criminal when they first captured him in Burgess park. And while warrant officer Aoko Hoshido too didn't express any regret about those events, she hadn't inflicted any such abuse on him, thus...

Thinking a little further, the green-eyed teen came to a conclusion that he himself wasn't sinless either. For one, he hadn't gifted Hermione with anything whereas Ron was now the new owner of his – quite expensive – Nimbus 2000 broomstick. He really really should have sent the bushy-haired witch something to show her just how much he valued their friendship. And not owning anything of worth at the time was no excuse: he could have just bought her something! Alas, now it was way too late to fix that mistake. Hopefully, she will find it in herself to forgive him, should they ever meet again.

And while Hermione and Ron had been his closest friends, they most definitely weren't his only ones. There was Neville and the entire quidditch team. And he got them nothing as well. Even worse, he hadn't even told them that he was leaving! He really hoped that Oliver Wood won't commit a suicide when he discovers that his team's star seeker was nowhere to be found – knowing how much of a quidditch fanatic that guy was, one just couldn't dismiss such a possibility.

Nope, Harry thought as he shook his head, he had shown himself to be an awful friend and comrade... But, at least, he now knew about that and could do his best not to repeat such mistakes in the future.

**~/ *** \~**

On the last of his three free days, Harry decided that it was the time for him to finally visit the local bank and convert the precious metals and gems he had bought from Gringotts into the local currency. And 'doctor' Kyoko was kind enough to agree to accompany him there. Though that might also be because she was simply interested in what he had up his sleeve as he, without any doubts, was an interesting specimen for her...

The blond scientist actually took him to the central bank of Mid-Childa, which, rather unsurprisingly, was located within the same administrative complex as the local TSAB headquarters: those formidable magical defenses definitely would increase the bank's security... And while its building wasn't a crystal spire reaching towards the skies, it was still very much impressive. Definitely more so than the rickety-looking marble structure that was the Gringotts bank in Diagon alley.

And since they got there during the business hours, the bank was quite packed with people. However, these people weren't really standing in the lines to one teller or another. No, instead, they picked a coupon with their queue number from a machine and waited in the lounge section of the atrium till some teller was ready to serve them... The tellers themselves also seemed to have specializations and none of them was seen carrying out absolutely all possible services to the bank's clients. Which, considering how many various services the bank offered, was quite understandable.

Anyhow, since no one else seemed to be selling precious metals or gems at the moment, Harry needn't have waited for long, before some teller at the far end of the hall was ready to do business with him. From there, the green-eyed teen was led into one of the relatively small rooms attached to the bank's main hall – the deal was about large sums of money and had to be made in private. 'Doctor' Kyoko, whose charge he was, followed him in there.

"I would like to sell these and deposit the resulting money." The young Potter said as he placed both his suitcases onto the counter and unlocked them. Then he unlocked the smaller steel boxes that were inside of them, finally showing the bars of precious metals and the gems he was selling to the teller. The said man appeared to be quite surprised to see such riches in the hands of someone who was barely a teenager. And so was warrant officer Chidori.

"If those are indeed real, you can get a lot of money for them, Mr. Potter." She commented, before adding in her mind: '_Probably about as much as I've earned during the last seven years..._' No, she wasn't jealous of her charge! Absolutely not!

"May I inquire where you've gotten these from, mister?" The teller asked, apparently wondering about the origins of all these precious metals and gems.

"Those were legally bought from a bank on the non-administered world 138 using local money." Harry answered the question. Then he turned his head to look at the 'doctor' Kyoko and elaborated: "Apparently my father was from a small but rich noble family. However, both he and my mother had died when I was fifteen months old and since I had no other relatives alive, I was sent to live with my aunt. She and her family, however, despised my father and so I haven't learned about the inheritance he left to me until recently." The young Potter explained.

"...I see." The blond scientist replied after a moment of silence.

"These bars of gold and platinum are of surprisingly high quality." The teller stated with a little bit of surprise in his voice once the machine finished analyzing them – apparently, some people thought that the non-administered worlds were all stuck in Stone Age or something like that. A few moments later, another scanner confirmed that the gems also were the real thing.

And since the bank had no feasible ways of determining whether these bars of precious metals and gems had really been bought legally or not, they had no other option but to believe the young Potter's word. Thus, they were going to buy them. And considering the prices on the market... the teen was going to be quite a rich bastard!

"And you said, you wanted to deposit the money you are going to earn?" The teller asked then.

"Yes." Harry replied with a nod. "And since I don't have one there already, I'll need an account too." As it was explained to him, all of the information regarding one's accounts could, among other things, be stored within the identity card. But since that sounded way too much like placing all of his eggs into the same basket, the young Potter opted for a separate card instead.

He'll probably have to transfer some of his money to different banks as well for some extra financial safety, but that could be handled at a later date...

"I will need you to fill these forms if you want to open an account." The teller said as he handed Harry a few documents and a pen. Filling the forms did take some time, but once the green-eyed Earthling was done with that, the rest of the account-creation process went quite fast. For a few moments, the young Potter even wondered how could it be so quick, but then he realized that his money weren't physical yet, just some numbers stored in the computers, and as such, they didn't require a vault or anything like that...

**~/ *** \~**

"Alright, Mr. Potter." Warrant officer Chidori said. They finished the first batch of tests for today a few minutes ago, and now it was the time to discuss their results... Harry, who was now sitting across the table from the blond scientist, nodded, interested in what she was going to say. "First of all, I can say that Aoko-sempai had been correct and the pattern of your magic indeed doesn't correspond with either Mid-Childan or Belkan systems. It actually appears to belong to a separate magic system, the one which has no mentions in the Bureau's archives."

"And what does that mean?" The young Potter asked.

"Well, for one, until we're completely sure that there will be no violent reactions should your magic come in contact with more conventional spells, whatever magical training you will be doing, it will be done under supervision, and separately from other TSAB trainees." She replied. "However, before that, there is a small problem of your Linker Core to be fixed. Right now it appears to be not completely developed yet. Thus, right now, extensive usage of mana might cause you health problems." The blond woman made a short pause, before continuing: "Don't worry about that, though. There are special exercises designed for the purpose of developing one's Linker Core. And if you keep doing them properly, in a month or two you should be totally ready to begin your proper magical training."

"That's nice to hear." Harry replied. "What would those exercises be?" He asked then, eager to learn about something that would fix the apparent problem with his magical core.

"I'll get to that in a moment." 'Doctor' Chidori responded. "There is still one other thing that we should discuss before that." There was a short pause, before she continued: "Namely, the Lost Logia in your, shall we say, possession. Don't worry, like Aoko-sempai had said, it's no danger to you. Even if you say it gets warm when you draw upon your mana. That effect actually happens because your Core isn't fully developed yet. Once it can properly process the immense amounts of mana the Logia offers to it, the flow of energy will stabilize and you won't be experiencing any discomfort when drawing upon magic anymore." The young Potter nodded.

"Alright." He said then, rather impatient to finally learn the exercises that would set him onto the way to becoming a proper mage by fixing his underdeveloped Linker Core.

"Well,.." Warrant officer Chidori began. "Now, onto the exercises you'll be doing. The first one would be..." And she began explaining the technique of stimulating one's Core which, while normally used to accelerate the recovery of magic in someone who had suffered a serious Core damage, could also speed up the development of a young, immature core.

And it was just the first exercise...

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	7. Of Magic and Devices

The seventh chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>chm01<strong>, truth to be said, I haven't really given it a thought. And isn't it way too unique to even have a separate name for itself, instead of being identified by its user? But if you have some ideas, I'm all ears.  
><strong>FateBurn<strong>, **lordamnesia**, **celf**, **karthik9**, **Sieses Detkrah**, **Opinr**, **Ranmaleopard**, **thunder18**, **Penny is wise**, **ultima-owner**, **Shadowsmage**, **dorfdel**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>Jose19<strong>, prophecy will eventually catch up with him... Or not really. Based on the current sketches for the future plot, he will eventually have his own reasons to seek out wizards and trade a service for service with them. As for romantic pairings, those will have to wait a bit, but Harry will have a few girls interested in him (yes, there will be straight - or at least bi - girls in my rendition of _**Nanoha**_-verse!). Who those girls are will be a secret for now. ...Though given what I've written so far in my author notes, you should be able to guess one of them.  
><strong>Impstar<strong>, **serialkeller**, this chapter covers the first part of Harry's training. So, why don't you see what I have in store yourself?  
><strong>SonicAnime2010<strong>, this chapter end in the early February 0065 and Amy is being transferred to "Athra" offscreen just after that. She still has enough time to show for the events of the original anime, which takes place in spring to early summer of 0065.

*** AN**: First of all, this is the last prearranged chapter that I have. In other words, from now on the updates won't be happening as often. I will try to write at least a chapter a week, but no real promises there... At least I have an idea where this story will be going within the next four arcs - once again, special thanks to **Lupine Horror** for being my sounding board - so there will be no writer blocks of "I don't know what to write" in the foreseeable future. Other things, however, may impede me. The real life being the most generous in giving me problems.

Also, regarding the Deathly Hallows as Lost Logia... Alright, I will concede that the wand might qualify as well, though being just more powerful than your average wand doesn't really sound like a proper justification to me. And the cloak - not degrading with age - is NOT a Logia by their proper definition. But as it comes as a part of a set with the other two Hallows...

Now, onto the contents of this chapter... Major Fern Corrado actually is a canon character, even if she appears only in _**StrikerS**_ supplementary manga. There, in a flashback (which happens during her meeting with adult!Fate) we see her beating both Fate and Nanoha at once, supposedly without taking a single hit. Granted, the girls had been ten at the time... And no, major Corrado won't be a single-chapter character; she will make her appearance again, probably in chapter IX.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Disclaimer<em>**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter VII: Of Magic and devices**

It had been seven weeks since Harry began doing the exercises to speed up the development of his Linker Core. And, even without proper access to the data continuously collected by 'doctor' Chidori during the tests, the young Potter could still see just how much of a progress he was making.

Previously, his magical circle was just a single eight-points star with runes inscribed inside it at its vertices, and some barely-visible ghosts of two more 'stars' inside it. Now, in addition to the outer 'star', he could clearly see the middle one, which too had inscribed runes, but only at the four of its vertices instead of all eight. The inner 'star' – which for whatever reason looked more like a compass rose than a star like the outer two – was still a bit blurry, but...

Anyhow, his magical circle now looked mostly complete and the chances were, his Linker Core was approaching its maturity. And warrant officer Chidori seemed to be of the same opinion, though, in her case, it was based not on a mere visual effect, but on the data she kept collecting from various sensors she used to measure his progress.

With the today's battery of tests was over, the young Potter headed back to the woman's office for the discussion of the results. Of course, he changed into his normal clothes before that as the body-fitting suit she had him wearing while in her laboratory was hardly the most appropriate set of clothes for a anything outside the said laboratory's walls.

"Alright, Harry." The blond scientist, who was already sitting behind her table, said as the green-eyed Earthling finally joined her in the office. She waited for him to sit down in one of the guests' chairs, before continuing: "Your Linker Core had progressed nicely towards its maturity, and while I'd say it's a bit too early to stop with the exercises, you're probably ready to start your real magical training."

"Thank you, sensei." The young Potter said with a small bow. 'Doctor' Kyoko merely waved her hand dismissively in response to that.

"We shall start your lessons tomorrow. For the time being, the laboratory should be enough for that." She continued. "As for today... Why don't you take a day off and rest?" Harry nodded, before asking:

"Does this also mean that I will be getting my device soon?"

"Probably." Warrant officer Chidori replied. "Right now we still know very little about this magic system you are exhibiting, not enough to customize or reprogram a device for your use. And if you try using one with default settings, then, I'm afraid, some potentially serious issues may arise during the actual casting. We'd rather avoid that." A small pause later, she added: "Don't worry, though, once we've studied the properties of your magic sufficiently, we will get you some really cool device."

"Thank you." The green-eyed teen said with a nod. While he was more than just eager to start his magical training, he had seen what happens when someone tried to use an ill-fitted device a couple of times. The results weren't pretty... And he'd rather avoid spending any time at the medical bay simply because he was too eager to train himself into a proper mage.

* * *

><p>The next morning Harry arrived to the laboratory as usual, though in much higher spirits as today would be the first lesson in actual magic. Kyoko Chidori was already waiting for him there, opting to go down into the test chamber instead of staying in the control room for once. Though, she still wore her usual clothes: the Ground Forces brown uniform with a lab coat thrown over it.<p>

"I suppose, I should start your magical lessons with a long and boring lecture that would span over at least two days,.." The blond scientist began. "But there are better things to do than that, and given how unique your magic is, at least a third of the points from that lecture would be invalidated anyway." Taking a breath she continued: "Thus, I will limit myself to a mere warning: until it is confirmed that your magic is controllable and is of no danger to yourself and those around you, you will be allowed to practice only under supervision. Either by myself, or by a certified instructor from Tactical Corps. And if you are caught breaking this rule..." 'Doctor' Chidori didn't finish her threat, but after knowing her for almost two months, Harry had no doubts that his punishment will be most severe.

"Yes, ma'am!" The young Potter replied. After a small pause the blond woman nodded, apparently satisfied with his answer for the moment.

"Alright then." She said as a big holographic display manifested itself next to her. On this display Harry could see a number of relatively-simple equations – simple enough that he could reliably and quickly solve them in his mind, despite being far from done with his studies of higher math. "These are the equations that define the '**Guiding light**' spell." 'Doctor' Chidori said as a small ball of greenish light appeared on the palm of her hand. "It's one of the simplest spells out there. It's also one of the two known spells that have the same equations within both Mid-Childan and Belkan magic systems representing them." She made a pause, as if preparing to ask a question. Which she just did: "Now, Harry, can you tell me, why I chose this spell as the first one to teach you?"

"Well..." The green-eyed teen began. "It's apparently very simple, so, something you'd be teaching to someone who had just started learning magic." Kyoko nodded, however the expression on her face was telling that she still expected more from him. After thinking for a bit, Harry added: "And since it is the same for both Mid-Childan and Belkan systems, you are hoping that it would also work for me without any need of alteration." The blond scientist nodded again.

"Indeed." She confirmed. "Since the chances are, it will work fine despite the ...uniqueness of your magic, it is the best spell for you to begin with. That, and it is also the best spell to use as a benchmark in understanding the properties of your magic." She said, before closing her hand, simultaneously dispelling the ball of light she had been holding in so far. Then she added: "This spell is also used for training purpose because it teaches you to condense mana into a relatively-stable form outside of your body. A technique that nearly all Mid-Childan non-elemental shooting spells use to create their projectiles."

As simple as that spell sounded in theory, Harry quickly found out that casting it for real was anything but easy. And even the comment from his sensei that there was nothing wrong with not getting the spell to work on the first day of trying wasn't making it easier for him.

It took the young Potter a couple of dozens tries before he got a handle on how to control his mana outside of his body! Even then, his mana stubbornly refused to stay together in a ball-like shape he was supposed to have it in – it kept breaking apart and dispersing at any chance it got.

And before the green-eyed teen knew it, it was the lunch time. He still was quite unsuccessful in casting the '**Guiding light**' spell correctly, but at least, after four hours of trying, there was some progress. Namely, he managed to make the _it_ give off some light. Too bad, _it_ was not a stable ball of mana but an amorphous and ever-changing blob with wisps of magical energy breaking away from it all the time.

"Alright." 'Doctor' Kyoko said. "I think it's time for you to take some rest." After a short pause, she added: "There is a staff meeting this afternoon, so I won't be able to observe your training then." Harry couldn't help but lower his head. As hard as the spell was proving itself to be, learning magic once again was fun. And he'd rather keep going, despite his apparent lack of success... The blond scientist obviously noticed that expression on his face. "I'll be giving you some homework, though."

"Oh?" The young Potter asked. Wasn't he supposed to be practicing his magic only under supervision?

"Here." Kyoko waved her hand, making three holographic displays holding various data pop up. "This is the recordings of your ten latest attempts at casting '**Guiding light**'. I'll have a printout waiting for you in my office." She said. "I want you to try and analyze them. And, if you can, try to think of a way to adjust the spell's formulas that would make it more stable in your case."

"I'll see what I can do, ma'am." The green-eyed teen replied as he scanned the data on the displays... And if that data was to be believed, the only problem with his casting of the spell was the lack of stability for the mana ball he was supposed to make. Everything else in his casting appeared to be done more or less without errors.

"Good." The blond warrant officer said. "Now, let's go get some lunch, shall we?"

* * *

><p>Harry ended up spending a good deal of the evening that day on attempts to understand how he could adjust the '<strong>Guiding light<strong>' spell to make it work for himself. And after pouring over the equations for a few hours he ended up with three possible solutions.

Two of those required him to simply use different sets coefficients in a few places and would result in a mana ball of different size or density – but the young Potter was quite sure that if the solution to his problem was just that simple, he would have accidentally stumbled upon it in the morning... The third possible solution, though, would see him including an extra set of parameters into the spell's equations to counteract the dispersion.

Deciding that this third route was most likely the correct one, the green-eyed youth began rewriting the equations of the '**Guiding light**' spell. And while he knew that he shouldn't just put extra parameters into the equation without understanding what exactly they meant, he couldn't really phantom what the physical interpretation of those new constants he was adding should be... Hopefully, 'doctor' Chidori will help him with those during their next session...

* * *

><p>As it turned out, his guess was quite spot on: the first thing that Kyoko did was reminding him that adding something to the spell's equations without truly understanding what he was doing was very dangerous. After all, if his gut feeling was wrong and he had added something incorrectly, a nasty incident could happen the moment he tried the modified spell out. But at the same time she also praised him for the approach he had taken.<p>

The two of them then spent the entire morning and a part of the afternoon re-checking his modified equations to make sure that the resulting piece of magic wouldn't blow in Harry's face or something like that. During that time, the blond scientist, using her great experience in magical theory and spell-crafting, added a few more adjustments to his work.

And after a few computer simulations to see that the modified spell was safe to use, 'doctor' Chidori gave Harry the green light in trying the spell out for real... The result, while still not ideal, was much better than before: the young Potter might still have some troubles keeping mana together in a tight ball, but at least now the said ball wasn't falling apart so fast that the spell couldn't function properly.

**~/ *** \~**

Over the next couple of days Harry finally got a good handle on casting his modified '**Guiding light**' properly and so it was the time for him to move onto the next thing to learn. Namely, this time 'doctor' Chidori was going to teach him probably the most important skill for any mage to have: telepathy.

"_Alright, Harry, can you hear me?_" The blond scientist 'asked', her voice seemingly originating from within his head. This had surprised the young Potter quite a lot. So much, actually, that for a moment he had lost his control over a ball of light he had hovering next to him, causing it to dissipate into nothing.

"Yes." He replied after he recreated the cursed magical light.

"_Good._" Kyoko's voice inside his head said then. "_It looks like the peculiarities of your magic don't affect the establishing of telepathic links._" That sounded like it was a very good thing. "_Now, can you try talking to me without saying anything aloud?_" She asked then.

"How?" The green-eyed teen answered with a question of his own.

"_Can you sense a bit of my mana within yourself?_" 'Doctor' Chidori said. When Harry nodded, she continued: "_It is the link I'm speaking to you through. It goes both ways, so to give me your answer telepathically, just think of what you want to say and push that thought into the connection. It would work the same way if you talk to more than one person as well._" She explained.

"L_i_k_e_ t_h_i_s_?" The young Potter asked.

"_Almost._" The blond scientist replied, still without saying a single word out aloud. "_I could hear you over the link, though you were still talking out aloud as well. Don't worry, a little bit of practice and telepathy will be an easy thing to you_." She gave him her countenance.

"O_k_a_y_..." The green-eyed teen replied. It still wasn't a complete telepathy, but, at very least, he was progressing in learning this skill much faster than he did with the '**Guiding light**' spell.

"_Also. Once you can use the existing links to talk to others properly, I will have you learn how to establish one yourself._" Kyoko added then, instantly reminding her charge that they hadn't even started the hardest part of his current lesson yet...

**~/ *** \~**

Over the next three months the young Potter had learned three more spells. Well, 'learn' might not be the right word to use there as all three spells had to be significantly altered if not outright rewritten to make them work properly within that quirky magical system of his.

The first one out of those three spells was the '**Pulse scan**'. It was based on the '**Area search**' spell, the purpose of which was detection of any and all things magical around the caster. It was without any doubts a very useful piece of magic, though not often used as for whatever reasons, many mages tended to prefer more specialized search spells.

Another spell added to Harry's repertoire was a basic shield, to which he gave the name of '**Lesser aegis**'... Unfortunately, this shield turned out to be way too basic as it seemed to work properly only against physical attacks. Magical shots weren't stopped by it, even if they were weakened somewhat. A lot of attempts to improve this shield had been made either by Kyoko or by the young Potter himself, but none of those had really worked. Thus, after wasting quite a bit of time on this task, the two of them had decided to move onto other spells and return to improving '**Lesser aegis**' later, when the green-eyed teen's magic was understood better.

Finally, there was Harry's sole piece of offensive magic, which had been derived from the basic Mid-Childan shooting spell. And due to how its bullets resembled falling stars, Harry ended up naming it '**Starfall shooter**'. Because like all offensive spells within the administered worlds it needed to have a non-lethal mode, the development of this spell took the longest time. And it still ended up as quirky as the shield one, though in completely different ways... For one, '**Starfall shooter**' was neither guided nor homing, but the young Potter still could define the trajectories of the bullets before they were fired. That, and the bullets themselves, despite not being very powerful, seemed to phase through standard Mid-Childan shields just as well as Mid-Childan shooting spells phased through his '**Lesser aegis**'.

Harry had also expressed his desire to learn the '**Dimensional transfer**' spell, but given how complex it was, it was decided that he should wait until after he got a functioning device for himself before attempting to learn it.

**~/ *** \~**

Even though he had barely slept the previous night, Harry was still full of energy this morning. The reason for that was quite simple: today they were going to start working on his device! And once he had it, he will be able to learn and do even more magic!

Being too excited about this to wait any longer, the young Potter arrived to the cafeteria almost as soon as it opened. And after practically devouring his breakfast, he headed straight to Kyoko's office. Somehow, though, he was still the last one to arrive: by the time he got there, not only 'doctor' Chidori was already there, but so were her two apprentices, Mary and Amy. And the three of them were already immersed in work, surrounded by floating holographic displays with various data.

"Alright." The blond warrant officer said. "Now that we are all here, shall we begin?" As all three teens nodded in agreement, she continued: "As I've promised it to Harry, we're going to start working on his device. However, given the unique nature of his magic, we will likely need to significantly alter a standard programming of a core to make it work for him." Here 'doctor' Chidori made a pause, during which she pulled a box out of her table's cabinet. Inside that box there was a number of crystals in several different colors. "Speaking of which, here is a number of blank cores for storage devices." She continued, gesturing towards these crystals. "While they technically should all be the same, it would still be better if Harry himself chooses the one for himself."

"Okay?.." The green-eyed teen replied as he eyed a dozen or so devices' cores. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to pick one over another – especially since they supposedly were different only in their appearance – so he closed his eyes and let the Chance decide for him. Thus, he ended up with Baguette-cut ultramarine 'gem' roughly the size of his index finger's phalanx.

"Good. The device core you picked recognizes you as a mage and measures your Linker Core's maximal capacity correctly." 'Doctor' Chidori commented as she scanned the information on one of the holographic displays floating in front of her. She then returned the box with the remaining cores to her table's cabinet – those were no longer needed and would only be getting in their way otherwise.

"Shall we start working on it?" Mariel asked then.

"Well, probably. We have a lot of work to do on this one." Kyoko replied. "The mana management algorithms need to be rewritten, and the same goes for the spell assistance sub-system." She paused, before switching her attention back to the young Potter. "And since we will be more or less rebuilding the device, Harry, why don't you pick another form for it? Somehow I don't think you'd want to keep it as a staff." The green-eyed teen nodded.

"Hm... until we find a way to make my '**Aegis**' shield work properly against the magical attacks, I will have to rely on physical armor to protect myself, won't I? Maybe, my device then should be a part of that armor? Something like a bracer or, maybe, a gauntlet?"

"Sounds like a decent idea." 'Doctor' Chidori agreed. "Anyhow, unless you want to watch us delve into the source codes for the device's system, why don't you busy yourself with designing the appearance of your device?" She asked then. And since Harry had barely touched the books about programming, he was sure that he won't understand a thing in what the three Device Meisters – well, one true Meister and two trainees – were about to do. So, getting himself a holographic display to work with, he began sketching his future device...

* * *

><p>Over the next five weeks both 'doctor' Chidori herself and the two of her apprentices spent hours upon hours on modifying the once-normal-storage device into something that would work alright for the young Potter. Of course, Harry was helping them as much as he could, but given how little he still knew about programming, his assistance was generally limited to double- and triple-checking the mathematics behind the system. After all, so far only he himself and Kyoko-san had the knowledge on how his magic was working...<p>

Anyhow, it was near the end of January 0065 when 'doctor' Chidori declared his device ready for the test drive. Of course, everyone, Harry himself included, knew that it was still far from being finished, but at least it now _looked_ complete. In its standby form this yet to be named device had the appearance of a full-metal bracer with its only 'decoration' being the aquamarine gem of its core that was partially hidden by the armor.

"Why don't you try it out, Harry?" The blond-haired scientist asked as he handed the device they had been working on so hard over to its intended owner.

"Of course, and thank you all for what you've done for me." The young Potter said as he took the device and placed it on his right hand. As soon as the bracer was in place, the gem flashed with some inner light, apparently recognizing that it was now worn by a mage. "Drive ignition!" He commanded, causing the gem to flash again as it accepted the command. Meanwhile, a holographic display with the debug data popped up in front of 'doctor' Chidori.

"It seems to be working fine so far." She commented. "Why don't you activate it now?" She suggested.

"Active form!" Harry commanded. Since there was no model for his barrier jacket – he will have to customize it later on – the only thing that changed was the device itself. The bracer was gone and in its place there now was a rather big and well-armored gauntlet in silvery colors with sharp and pointy claws at the tips of the fingers. The device's core was now completely hidden under the layer of armor too. "I suppose, it is functioning correctly so far." The young Potter commented. This being his first time wielding a device, he had no real idea of what to expect.

"Seems so." Amy, who was looking into the display with the debug data over her mentor's shoulder, agreed. 'Doctor' Kyoko herself was of the same opinion as she nodded in agreement with her brown-haired apprentice.

"How about testing some actual performance then?" The blond warrant officer asked then. "We have input all of the spells you've successfully cast before, so why don't you try casting a shield spell with your device? Just tell the device what you want it to do and don't cast it on your own – we already know that you can do that." Harry nodded.

"Alright..." Taking a deep breath, he concentrated on the connection he now shared with a storage device on his right hand. "**Lesser aegis!**" He ordered then, pushing the thought of what he wanted the device to do towards its core. The device returned a 'heartbeat' to acknowledge the command. Then, a ghostly-blue semi-sphere with Harry's magical circle projected onto it shimmered into existence in front of the green-eyed teen. Unfortunately, it looked like the device wasn't tuned correctly, as the shield looked all noisy and unstable.

"Seems like we will need to fine-tune the calculating algorithms, they are making some significant errors." 'Doctor' Chidori said as Harry stopped feeding mana to his device, causing the faulty shield to disappear. "Though, at least it works somehow. I've half expected that it would throw up an error the first time we tried it."

"Standby form." The young Potter commanded, returning the device to its bracer form. Then he took it off and handed it back to the Device Meisters. "Well, shall we get back to work?" He asked rather enthusiastically: finally getting a device will be a big step towards becoming a proper mage for him. And he couldn't wait to complete this step!

"Well, seeing that it now works, I think I should leave it in your capable hands, Amy, Mary." The blond scientist addressed to her apprentices. "Harry will, of course, be there to help you with the mathematics behind his magic system..." The three teens nodded. Meanwhile, Kyoko continued: "Also, Harry, I think you should think of a name for your device... And design a barrier jacket to."

"Aye, aye, ma'am!" The young Potter replied in a mock-proper manner.

* * *

><p>It took the three teenagers another two weeks of efforts to fine-tune Harry's device – which now had the name of 'Phoenix claw' – to the point where it could cast all of its owner's spells properly. 'Doctor' Chidori was also very satisfied with the results of their work, going as far as to proclaim that both Amy and Mary could now call themselves the real Device Meisters, which made both girls glow with happiness at least for a whole week.<p>

Of course, the creation of his device, especially given how much work it required, had cost the young Potter quite a bit of money – the Bureau was compensate him only a half of the device's cost. But it didn't really matter to Harry as he had the money to pay 'Doctor' Chidori and her girls for the work that had done for him. Plus, this device was the testament of him becoming a real mage, thus, for him, it was totally worth its cost.

And let's not forget that for Harry getting his device meant the he finally could advance onto the more complex spells, the ones that he couldn't make calculations for without a device's assistance due how difficult the math involved was. And out of those spells, the '**Dimensional transfer**' was the one the young Potter wanted to learn the most...

Oh, and in those two weeks the green-eyed teen had also made some improvements to the spells he already knew, and his '**Lesser aegis**' shield was enhanced the most. No, it was still unable to completely block magical projectiles, even the weak ones, but now it reduced their power as they phased through it much more reliably. Harry's sole offensive spell, the '**Starfall shooter**' also got some improvements that made its bullets faster and more powerful. Yep, Harry was getting better and better with his magic!

**~/ *** \~**

Today was going to be an interesting day, Harry though as he followed 'doctor' Chidori and Amy into one of the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps training grounds. Technically, they were there for the brunette's C-rank mage test, but if what Kyoko had been hinting at was true, the young Potter would get a chance to show off too.

Soon enough, the three of them arrived to the central clearing, where a single woman in the white Air Force uniform had been waiting for them. This woman was pretty short and most of her hair had turned gray with age. But the nearly-tangible aura of power surrounding her made it quite very clear that despite her appearance, she was someone very capable and experienced fighter that could take on entire platoons and win.

"Good morning, major!" Warrant officer Chidori said as she stopped and saluted with Harry and Amy following the suit just a moment later. "_This is major Fern Corrado from the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps. She a double-A ranked mage who took the position in the Corps around twenty years ago after retiring from active duty. Since then she had earned herself a reputation of one of the best combat instructors on Mid-Childa. And, today, she will be your examiner, Amy._" The blond scientist introduced the major to her charges. And the young Potter could swear that he heard the brunette next to him swallow nervously... Considering that all tests for mage ranking involved either an obstacle course or a direct fight against an examiner, he could understand the girl's fearfulness.

"At ease." Major Corrado replied as she returned the salute. There was a short pause, before she continued: "Limietta-san, you are here to take your C-rank exam, right?" Amy, who had stiffened the moment she had been addressed to, gave a rather-mechanical nod.

"Y-Yes, ma'am." She replied finally.

"Your exam will be a combat simulation against me." The Air Force instructor said then. "You will be judged based on how well you perform during this simulation. In order to pass this exam, you need to..." And while she was explaining the tasks to Amy, major decided to speak to Harry as well: "_And would you be Harry Potter-san? I've heard quite a few interesting things about you, young man._" Since the green-eyed had been listening to the explanation of the exam, it took him a few moment to get his wits together and form a reply.

"_Yes, ma'am. Thank you ma'am._" He finally responded telepathically.

"_I'm interested in what you can do, young man. After all, it's not everyday that I get to see the powers of someone with a never seen before system of magic..._" Major continued. "_Could you, perhaps, have a small spar with this old lady, once she is done with testing cadet Limietta?_" Despite the way it was phrased, this was not a question. It was an order. But before Harry could reply to it, 'doctor' Chidori entered their telepathic conversation:

"_Not to question your decisions, major, but are you sure about that? There is still quite a lot of things we don't know for sure about Potter-san's magic. I'd rather..._" Head instructor Corrado shook her head.

"_I might not be as young as I used to be, Kyoko-chan, but do I really have to remind you that even the three of you together will have a very hard time winning against me?_" And it was not the old lady's arrogance speaking. She had more than enough combat experience, skill and raw magical power to back this claim up... 'Doctor' Chidori shook her head.

"_No, of course no, ma'am. I was just expressing the reasonable caution when dealing with a not yet completely understood phenomenon._" She replied. That answer, apparently, was enough to satisfy major... There was a short pause in the telepathic conversation, before head instructor Corrado broke the 'silence' by addressing to Harry:

"_So... What would your answer be, young man?_" She asked.

"_It will be a honor to have a friendly match against you, major._" The green-eyed teen replied.

"_Of course. Now, if you excuse this old lady, there is a cadet whose skills I need to examine._" Major Corrado replied telepathically, before shutting the link off. "Are you ready, cadet Limietta?" She asked Amy then. The brown-haired girl – who already clad in her barrier jacket and had her device in her hands, nodded. "Then, your exam begins... Now!"

* * *

><p>The mock battle that was Amy's exam lasted maybe three minutes. And it was so one-sided, despite major not even using her device, that the brunette got a chance to show off her offensive capabilities only because her examiner allowed her to. Yet, despite all that, apparently, she did well enough for head instructor Corrado to give her a pass.<p>

"Cadet Limietta of Dimensional Navy, congratulations on successfully passing your C-rank exam." Major said to the brown-haired girl, who was trying to catch her breath sitting on the ground... Upon hearing those words, though, Amy seemed to instantly regain her strength as she shot up into standing upright, coming to attention.

"Thank you, ma'am!" She pronounced loudly. Major Corrado merely waved her hand dismissively at the girl's impulsiveness as she continued:

"I've heard that you've are being transferred to warship "Athra" as their new engineer at the end of the next week, correct?" Amy confirmed that. "Well, when you finally meet Lindy-chan... I mean, captain Harlaown, can you please tell her that I said 'hello'." It was clear that such a request caught the brown-haired Device Meister off guard, but she still responded as was expected of her:

"Of course, ma'am; I shall do that." Nodding, major switched her attention to Harry.

"And now, shall we have our spar, Potter-san?" She asked then.

"Yes, ma'am." The green-eyed teen confirmed as he walked onto the center of the clearing where Amy's mock battle had taken place. There was an intermission for a few seconds, before he noticed major looking at him expectantly. Apparently, he was supposed to activate his device and change into his barrier jacket before the beginning of the spar... "Phoenix claw, set up!" The young Potter commanded, changing his device into its gauntlet form.

And now that he had decided on the appearance of his barrier jacket and its specifications had been saved into his device, his clothes changed as well. So, the moment he called for activation of his device, his previous attire changed into a long-sleeved and rather muscle-tight thin sweater in Egyptian blue with segmented chest-piece and, small shoulder pads in silver metallic over it; black fingerless glove for his left hand with a small armor plate on the back; black pants with metal plates covering the front of cruses and rather normal and mostly-unarmored boots. And he also gained a narrow, almost vambrace-like, shield strapped to his left hand.

It was clear that the amount of physical armor he had in his barrier jacket had surprised major Corrado at least a little bit, but she didn't comment on it. Instead, she just shifted into a more battle-ready stance.

"Ready when you are." She said, apparently giving Harry a chance to open the match. Well, if that was so, he wasn't going to keep the lady waiting. Pointing his gauntlet-clad right hand in her direction with his palm open, the young Potter summoned eight balls of light.

"**Starfall shooter!**" These balls of light instantly turned into magical bullets speeding towards the major in straight lines. Seeing the incoming attack, instructor Corrado silently raised a Mid-Childan shield with barely jest. This made Harry worry a bit as conventional defensive magics hadn't worked against his shooter spells so far. And major's shield didn't turn out to be any different... However, even without moving out of her spot, the old lady still didn't get hit – she just destroyed his magical bullets with a controlled burst of her raw mana.

"Interesting..." She commented. "This spell is clearly based on the basic shooter, yet it went through my shield almost like it wasn't even there. The Bureau certainly would love to have you as one of their operatives if this is the magic you are wielding, young man." Finally dispelling her shield, major pointed her index finger back at young Potter. A moment later, a mandarin-sized ball of purplish light appeared in front of it. Then it exploded into a good dozen of magical bullets that sped towards Harry, each following its own unique trajectory.

The green-eyed teen responded by deploying his own shield – '**Lesser aegis**' – as far from himself as he could. While the chances of his shield deflecting those bullets were close to zero, it still could weaken them and slow them down somewhat...

Too bad, the bullets major was using were the guided ones: she simply had half of them fly around the young Potter's magical shield, thus forcing him to avoid being hit by them through other means. Namely, dodging or deflecting them with his physical armor. And, thanks to physical training he had undergone along with a magical one, Harry did that well enough – none of the bullets managed to land a solid hit on him, even if he now had a few singed spots on his vambrace shield.

"Well, it seems that you have to pay for your actually impressive offensive capabilities with rather weak magical defenses. And you yourself know that." Instructor Corrado observed. "Just don't ever forget that there are attacks that are too powerful to be stopped by physical barriers."

"Yes, ma'a-..." Harry began, only to give out a yelp of surprise and pain as a weak magical projectile hit an unarmored spot on his back.

"And here is another lesson for you, young man." Major continued. "Guided projectiles need to be canceled, unless you want them coming at you again and again. Deflecting them just once won't cut it."

"I shall remember that." The green-eyed teen replied as he steadied himself on his feet. Practical experience like that was something that couldn't be easily forgotten.

"Good." Instructor Corrado summed up. "Now, why don't we continue our spar?" Harry replied with a nod, before preparing good two dozens of magical bullets.

"**Starfall shooter!**" This time, however, he had each separate bullet follow a unique curved trajectory. And since this meant they all would arrive at their target in series, the old lady was actually forced to finally move out of her spot. Which, admittedly, was an achievement of sorts as Amy, despite passing her C-rank exam, couldn't do that.

However, this also meant that major would now take him a bit more seriously... And that was not something Harry could fight against yet. From there, it was only a matter of time before the barrages of various shooting spells she kept throwing at him took him down...

* * *

><p>"Well..." Major Corrado said once Harry returned to the world of living after being knocked out by a stunning bullet she had hit him with. "Given how Potter-san had been introduced to magic mere half a year ago, I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised by the level of proficiency he is showing. He is definitely ready for C-rank as well. And, depending on his luck, he might even be able to pass a B-rank exam right now." Wow, the green-eyed teen thought, was he really that good already?<p>

"Thank you, ma'am." He responded, while thinking that he should also thank Kyoko-sensei for this: without her help, he wouldn't be at this level... Head instructor waved her hand as she continued, now addressing to 'doctor' Chidori

"Knowing you, you will want to triple check that there are no surprises that his magic can dish up before letting him out into the big world, but you really should register him as a special cadet under your tutelage, Kyoko-chan." The blond scientist nodded.

"I was actually planning to do that." She said then.

"Good. I would really like to such a fine and interesting young man among the Bureau's active staff." Major Corrado replied. She was about to say something more, but paused when her device received a message, apparently from the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps head office. "Sorry, but it looks like the guys back there need me to fix whatever mess they made, again." She excused herself. "It was nice to meet you, Limietta-san, Potter-san. Take care and make the Bureau proud!" And with those words, she turned around and began walking out of the training grounds.

"Alright..." 'Doctor' Chidori after a drawn out pause. "Why don't we take a day off today and head into the town to celebrate Amy's success today?" She asked then. Of course, both teenagers readily agreed with this proposition.

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	8. Meeting the Knights

The eights chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>chm01<strong>, **Jose19**, **Teucrian**, I've answered your review via PM.  
><strong>ultima-owner<strong>, the thing is, while his shooting spells will phase through conventional Mid-Childan or Belkan shields, the reverse is also true - his shields can only weaken the incoming spells a bit. He's a glass cannon when it comes to ranged magical attacks almost to the extreme at the moment. Which is why he added so much physical armor to his barrier jacket: without it, the chances are, he won't last more than a few seconds in actual combat.  
><strong>roanoak<strong>, name me one wizard who actually uses illusions in combat from the "_**Harry Potter**_" books? As for Harry's repertoire, some illusions might be added to it at a later date, but he won't have any transfiguration spells at all. As even his unique magic system can't include them and he is not capable of using wizarding magic anymore, at least on the levels where it is of any use on the battlefield.  
><strong>Shadowsmage<strong>, **FateBurn**, **karthik9**, **Impstar**, **serialkeller**, **lordamnesia**, **Ranmaleopard**, **Penny is wise**, **dhyetaX1999**, **Guest**, **Opinr**, **thunder18**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>celf<strong>, no, just because he is ready for it, he isn't a C-rank yet. He'll be advance straight to B-rank in chapter IX, though. As for "_**Harry Potter**_" girls... He won't be back to UW-138 until way later, and while I do plan to use (at least) one girl in the arc where the action actually takes place on UW-138, I don't plan on any Hogwarts witches joining TSAB. Plus it's not like Harry won't have any girls after him as it is. ;)  
><strong>SilverStarWaters<strong>, Harry's barrier jacket was, actually, inspired by king Arthur's armor from Fate/Prototype. Somewhat, at least.  
><strong>kroz phantomville<strong>, and everyone else wondering about why I keep using 'doctor': neither of the two OCs who are 'doctors' are actual healers or have Ph.D equivalent from Mid-Childa, hence using 'doctor' without quotes would be incorrect.  
><strong>SonicAnime2010<strong>, and back to Harry's barrier jacket... He is a mage who fights mostly at range, so melee weapon isn't all that necessary for him. And while this chapter will have him learning how to 'befriend' people up close and personal, a heavy metal gauntlet is still good enough to leave sufficient impression on the target. It will be later upgraded with second form where it gains wrist-blades, though.  
><strong>Arc-Angel-Of-Fire<strong>, hm... I probably made it not clear back then... His 'new' magic was coming easier without a wand in hand, not the wizarding one. He is barely able to summon lighting charm that is at all visible, and the rest of his old spells aren't any better, how do you expect him to fight with something so weak? 

*** AN**: I hope this chapter finally makes it really clear when the story takes place.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Disclaimer<em>**_: I __DO NOT__ own "_**_Harry Potter_**_" or "_**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**_". No profit is being _made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter VIII: Meeting the knights**

Another three months had passed. During this time 'doctor' Chidori finally finished with the tests aimed to understand the properties and limitations of Harry's unique magic. And no matter what the two of them tried, there weren't able to make it interact with Mid-Childan spells properly – those just kept phasing through each other. Yet, that peculiarity aside, the young Potter's magic was safe and controllable enough for Kyoko to have no problems with officially enrolling him into the TSAB forces as a Ground Forces special cadet. With herself as his mentor, of course.

And mentor Harry she did. In these three month she had taught the green-eyed teen the '**Dimensional transfer**', a highly-useful transportation spell that allowed a mage to teleport from one place to another. And with enough power, one could even jump between nearby worlds, if those were close enough, with this piece of magic! The young Potter, having a reactor-type Lost Logia to power him up, certainly had enough mana to pull something like that off. Though, he was yet to try that out for real yet.

While learning the '**Dimensional transfer**' took a good chunk of those three months, it wasn't the only spell that Harry had added to his repertoire. He had also developed a variation of a basic binding spell called '**Chain bind**' for his own use. While his '**Whips of light**' were a bit slower to cast than their prototype, they also were noticeably more powerful, which made them a perfect spell to prevent even powerful targets from moving away while he bombarded them with his shield-penetrating attacks.

Speaking of those, not only had Harry made some further improvement to his '**Starfall shooter**', once again upping the speed and power of its 'bullets', but he also created a new and much more powerful spell based on it. With this yet to be named spell, he could charge up only one 'bullet' at a time, and doing that took about a second, but the amount of devastation the successful hit could cause... It was a good thing that he had been sensible enough to try this new spell out outdoors first as 'Doctor' Chidori's laboratory wouldn't have survived _that_ intact.

Aside from magical training, Kyoko also began tutoring Harry in everything he will need to know when he eventually joined the Bureau's ranks. Namely, various protocols and rules of conduct. The blond warrant officer also insisted on him upping his physical training: jogging around the block every morning was good and all, but... Soldiers were expected to be a bit more fit than that, at least until they grew into senior officers and ended up buried under paperwork in their offices.

**~/ *** \~**

"Good morning, Harry." Kyoko greeted her charge as he walked into her office. She could already see him preparing a question about what they were going to work on today, so she just went ahead and gave him the answer: "I've decided that, maybe, you should get some exposure to Belkan-style magic as well. The practitioners are rather uncommon, but I've managed to find one who is willing to teach you a thing or two about how the knights fight."

"T-Thank you, ma'am." The young Potter replied after a few long seconds, still rather stunned by what his mentor had just said. While the Belkan magic system wasn't really better or worse than Mid-Childan one, it was very rare these days, so to think that he would be given a chance to learn from a practitioner of those magical arts...

"Don't mention it." 'Doctor' Chidori replied. "The Bureau sees you as a great asset and they are willing to go quite some lengths to see you properly prepared for what you will be facing once you officially join their ranks." Well, Harry thought idly, that certainly explained why such a high-profile scientist like Kyoko-sensei was allowed to spend almost all of her time training him. Though, being seen as a mere asset, a tool to be used, was a little disconcerting... Then again, a soldier always was a tool, no matter which military he belonged to.

"So..." The green-eyed teen began after a pause. "When and where those lessons will take place?" After all, Kyoko-sensei's laboratory was not the best place for martial arts practices and, from what he had read, most of Belkan magic users gravitated towards melee combat.

"You will be meeting with your new _teacher_ in the Fourth Ground Forces Academy's training grounds number six in two hours." 'Doctor' Chidori replied, a playful sparkle in her eyes telling Harry that there were some, likely minor, details about that practitioner of Belkan magic that she was omitting. "Please don't be late there." Harry nodded.

"I shall be on my way then." After all, the Fourth Ground Forces Academy was on the South-West edge of Cranagan, about an hour and half by bus from the TSAB Mid-Childan main offices, where the Magitek Research Department was located.

"Of course." Kyoko agreed.

"By your leave, sensei." The young Potter said and, without really waiting for an answer from his mentor, left her office.

* * *

><p>In the end, because of the traffic and other minor delays, Harry arrived to the Fourth Ground Forces Academy's facilities with only a few minutes to spare. At least, he could see the gates leading into the training grounds from his current position. So, not going to waste anymore time, the green-eyed teen left the bus stop and hurried down the alley, looking for the gate of the training ground six...<p>

Which, not really surprisingly, was the sixth gate down the alley. And since the said gates were closed and he couldn't really see anyone else there, the young Potter thought that, maybe, he had arrived before his new trainer. A moment later, though, he heard something human-sized move in the canopy of a tree next to him. Not knowing what that was, he jumped a couple of steps back while turning to face the direction which the sound came from, ready to activate his device.

The source of the sound turned out to be a youthful-looking woman in her early twenties in Ground Forces uniform standing on a think branch of the tree. She had big teal eyes and most fantastic long purple hair made into a high ponytail with a light-blue ribbon holding it in place.

Actually, after thinking about it for a couple of moments, the young Potter was sure that he had seen her face in the news once or twice, along with those of a lavender-haired woman about her age and a huge man with shaggy brown hair...

"You have good reflexes." She commented as she _stepped_ off her branch and gracefully descended onto the ground. And now that he could see her shoulder straps properly, Harry noticed that she also was a warrant officer.

"Good morning, ma'am!" He said immediately while saluting to her.

"Good morning." She replied, returning the salute, but only because it was the proper thing to do and not because she liked following this particular routine. Then, she added: "Also, I'm kinda off-duty right now, so doing that isn't necessary." Harry nodded in acknowledgment. "Anyway, I guess introductions are in order?" She said, while sliding her identification card through the card reader next to the gates, making them slid open.

"Yeah." He agreed. "I'm special cadet Harry Potter under warrant officer Kyoko Chidori of Magitek Research Department." The purple-haired beauty waved her hand dismissively: she knew that already. She had been requested to train him, after all!

"And I'm warrant officer Quint Nakajima." The young woman finally told him her name. "I'm a part of the investigation team led by captain Zest Grangaitz." Now that was the name Harry had definitely heard about – that team had solved a really major case a few months ago and the media had been talking about their success for quite some time. Though, despite showing all members of that team, they only ever mentioned captain Grangaitz by his name.

"Alright, Nakajima-sensei, what are the plans for today?" The young Potter asked, curious about what his new trainer had in store for his first 'lesson'.

"Well..." Quint replied, a bit thoughtfully. "I think we should have a small spar to see where you stand with your current abilities. Then, we will be working from there." Well, that sounded right: how you could teach something to someone whose skills you knew nothing about?

The two of them soon found themselves entering in a pretty big clearing within the forest-like training grounds. And since this location suited their current needs quite well, the purple-haired beauty decided that it was as good place as any for their sparing to take place.

"There should be fine." She said. "Get ready." Without really waiting for him, she pulled two rather sizable armored gauntlets with spinning gears around wrists from ...well, somewhere, and put them on. Given how big those devices were, Harry was sure that they couldn't have been concealed on her person. "Revolver Knuckles, activate!" There was a brief flash of light as Quint's clothes were replaced by her barrier jacket... Well, knight's armor – she was a user of Belkan magic system, after all.

Whatever the proper name for those clothes might be, they were an almost black bodysuit with blue lines on it with an armor plate covering the chest area; an armored belt with segmented tassets and a deep-blue waist-coat attached to it; and a pair of armored roller-blades.

And considering the fact that this knight's armor made the fact that Quint was a shapely and rather well-endowed woman even more blatant and he himself was a growing boy approaching his fourteenth birthday, Harry couldn't help but have his attention wander off her face downwards... He was quickly brought back to reality when the purple-haired beauty slammed her gauntlets into each other with enough force to produce a damn shockwave.

"Phoenix claw, set up!" The green-eyed Earthling called, changing his device into its active form and donning his barrier jacket. The amount of physical armor he had incorporated into it did make Quint raise her eyebrow – even Belkan-magic users rarely ever wore that much – but she didn't say anything.

"If you are ready..." The warrant officer Nakajima said. Harry nodded, his mind already trying to come up with the ways he could last against her. "Then, our spar starts... Now!" Not wasting any time, the green-eyed teen opened the fight by sending a dozen or so 'bullets' towards his new sensei:

"**Starfall shooter!**" The purple-haired beauty raised a Belkan triangular shield in front of herself, but when it proved to be rather useless, she simply batted them away with her armored gauntlets.

"Interesting... A shooting spell that can go through normal magical defenses? That's quite useful for catching someone off guard." She commented. "But can you really use it actual fight?" Accepting the challenge the young Potter summoned a new set of 'bullets', before sending them towards Nakajima-sensei. Only for her to move out of the way, causing the magical projectiles to hit the ground instead. Deciding to try again, Harry created twice as many 'bullets' and gave them a better spread, but the result was still the same: despite all of the improvements he had made for his '**Starfall shooter**', Quint was just too fast for it to hit her.

'**Whips of Light!**' A number of magic circles appeared on the ground around the purple-haired beauty, and a moment later glowing whitish-blue cords of magic wrapped themselves around her body, restraining her. And since his magic was locked in the stun mode and his trainer had already proved herself to be a very tough girl, the green-eyed teen decided to try his yet-to-be-named overpowered shooting spell out. After all, the binds would give him the time he needed to charge it up, right?

A blink of an eye later, though, Quint physically tore the magical binds he had placed on her apart. And the backlash from his spell destroyed in such a violent way was enough for him to lose concentration for a moment and the 'bullet' he had been preparing fizzled away. Meanwhile, investigator Nakajima somehow managed to get close to him and was already raising her fist for a punch.

Without even using a verbal command, the young Potter hastily created a '**Lesser aegis**' shield in front of himself. Due to its nature, the shield managed to stop Quint's fist, but both she and Harry himself could see that a little bit more and it would break. And the purple-haired beauty still had a lot of strength to spare...

He didn't wait for her to break his shield though, instead, he canceled it himself, simultaneously rolling to the side. The sudden loss of the barrier she had been pushing against caused Nakajima-sensei to lose her balance a bit as he fell forward. And that was when a bright flash of light blinded her for a second. Instinctively, she immediately jumped aside, which proved itself to be correct thing to do as a number of magic 'bullets' went through the spot her body had been occupying a moment later.

Well, the purple-haired beauty thought, Potter-san was pretty good. And so far he was putting up a decent fight, especially for someone whose only attacks were unguided shooting spells. But, despite definitely being a B-rank mage already, he was not good enough to make her fight seriously... And since she had gotten a decent understanding of his strengths and weaknesses by now, Quint saw not much reason in dragging their fight out.

Collecting a decent amount of mana around her left fist, the Belkan knight punched the air in front of herself, creating a horizontal gust of tearing wind that sped towards the green-eyed teen. Making a note of his choosing to dodge this attack instead of deflecting it with a shield, warrant officer Nakajima quickly closed the distance between them, appearing in his melee range before he could fully recover from her previous attack.

Once again, though, Harry was able to block her punch with his shield... That was kind of irritating as breaking though magical defenses was her specialty. But instead of bothering to power her way through the shield, Quint decided to exploit its less-known weakness – namely, the fact that it protected only from attacks coming from one direction.

Using her powered roller-blades to quickly change her position, the purple-haired beauty threw a high kick at the young Potter. And this time he had no time to re-cast his shield and was forced to block her attack with his armor. And while he did manage that, the force behind the kick was so great that he was still sent flying, coming to stop in a rather awkward and uncomfortable position some ten meters away.

Nakajima-sensei was already by his side offering him her hand. And since he had already lost their spar, Harry had no problems with accepting it and being helped getting back onto his feet.

"Sorry... I guess, I got carried away a little bit..." That was one big problem for Belkan knights: they had no way of setting their melee attacks to 'stun' only. "Are you alright?"

"Don't worry, I've been through worse." Harry replied, still a little bit unsteady on his feet... Shaking his head, he took a look at the vambrace-like shield strapped to his left hand, the one he had blocked his sensei's kick with. And, this shield was actually bent a little bit! "You do hit hard..." He commented. "That strength can't be all natural, can it?"

"Yeah, it's not natural." Quint agreed. "How do you think it is achieved then?" She asked then. The green-eyed teen thought for a few seconds, before trying to give her an answer.

"You've used some kind of Belkan-system spell to make yourself stronger?" The purple-haired beauty shook her head.

"Nope. It's not a spell, and definitely not something unique to Belkan magic. Just... Most Mid-Childan mages always fight at a distance and never bother with augmenting their bodies like this, so this technique is mostly unknown to them." There was a small pause, before she continued: "Does your device have a magic scanner? Even the most basic one will do." Harry nodded. "Then turn it on and observe me." Doing like he was told, he watched Quint walk up to a sizable log lying at the edge of the clearing – it probably weighted about a metric ton – and lift one of its sides off the ground.

"You are... using your mana within your body to make your bones tougher and your muscles stronger." He said with a small surprise as he studied the output of his device's magic scanner.

"Precisely." His pretty mentor agreed, dropping the log back onto the ground. "This is a raw mana manipulation technique... In other words anyone with magic can learn it. Of course, you should remember that there are limits of how much your body can handle, magic or no magic. So don't ever try lifting really heavy things or you will overstrain yourself."

"I see." Harry breathed out.

"Unfortunately, since this kind of self-augmentation is a raw mana manipulation, you will have to learn it on your own. I will only be able to give you some advices." The young Potter nodded, kind of already expecting that given the way Nakajima-sensei approached it. Meanwhile she continued: "What I will be teaching you is proper forms for unarmed combat. I believe that everyone should know at least some basics of martial arts."

"Alright." He replied a little absentmindedly as he was still thinking about the raw mana manipulation techniques. The one Quint-sensei had just shown him, and the mana burst one that major Corrado had used to destroy his magical 'bullets' during their spar those three months ago. And, he was wondering, whether creating a layer of raw mana around his body would be a good way to improve his defenses against magical attacks... Well, to be able to test that theory, he'd need to learn how to manipulate his mana in such a way first...

"Okay then..." The purple-haired beauty said. "Shall we start your first lesson?"

**~/ *** \~**

Since Nakajima-sensei had at most a day a week to train him – and that is when she wasn't away on a mission with her team – the lessons in unarmed combat she was giving him consisted mostly of her checking his progress and showing him some new moves, which he'd then have to practice on his own.

And on two occasions their lessons had been joined by Quint's two adopted daughters, Subaru and Ginga. Though, had the purple-haired beauty not told him that, Harry would have though that they were her biological children, they looked so much like her... Anyhow, when the girls were present, they were the young Potter's sparring partners instead of their mother. At first he wasn't sure that having him spar against the five and seven years old kids was a good idea, but that changed once he got soundly beaten without being able to really do anything against them in their very first fight...

Nakajima-sensei was also trying to help him with learning the self-augmentation through mana manipulation, but even with her advices Harry's progress was quite slow. Then again, according to Quint, it took her months to master it as well, so the young Potter wasn't discouraged with his extremely slow progress yet.

* * *

><p>Anyway, today was going to be their seventh lesson. But instead of meeting at the Fourth Ground Forces Academy's training grounds like they usually did, the purple-haired beauty had told him to meet her at the TSAB Main Offices instead. And be wearing his cadet uniform too.<p>

At first, Harry was very surprised by this: it sounded like they will be attending an important event, but he had no idea what that event could be. Or that was so until he recalled the last few calls Amy-sempai, who now served as an engineer aboard of warship "Athra", made. Apparently, there had been a rather major incident involving some class three Lost Logia on the non-administered world 97, and now that the incident was finally over, "Athra"'s crew was transporting the bag guy behind it – someone named Fate Testarossa – to the Mid-Childa so that the justice could be served.

With that in mind, it was quite possible that warrant officer Nakajima wanted him to see how the Bureau's sword of justice worked.

That guess of his turned out to be exactly right: Quint was indeed taking him to the court where Fate Testarossa's trial was taking place. And since she was an investigator, she had no problems with getting them the seats in the public gallery. Also, as the people were assembling, she kept pointing the Bureau's important figures out, even if Harry had his doubts he will ever actually meet any of them in person.

Eventually, though, it was the time for the trial to begin, and... Well, based on the misdeeds she had supposedly done during the Lost Logia incident on the non-administered world 97, Harry expected Fate Testarossa to be someone of a more threatening appearance. But, instead, she was a cute nine-or-ten years old girl with long blond hair made into two pigtails and beautiful red eyes. Accompanying her was a noticeably-older orange-haired young woman with canine ears and tails – the girl's familiar, Arf.

"_Testarossa-san was estimated to be a double-A ranked mage and, according to the reports filed by captain Lindy Harlaown, she is a skillful fighter in both ranged and armed melee combat._" Quint commented telepathically.

"_I see..._" Was Harry's reply. No, he knew that there will always be someone better than him, but... He'd rather that someone was a successful TSAB officer like investigator Nakajima or major Corrado.

The crimes Fate Testarossa was accused of were surprisingly serious for someone not even in her teens: endangering civilian population of a non-administered world, assault on Bureau's personnel and civilian collaborators and illegal gathering of class one restricted items. However, she had quite a good exculpation as well: she had switched sides before the incident was over and willingly cooperated with the investigation, no one had been seriously harmed as the result of her actions and she had been collecting Lost Logia under her mother's orders.

After both the accuser and the defendant were heard, there were some small debates among the judges as to what punishment for her misdeeds the girl should be. In the end, the judges agreed upon giving Fate Testarossa a sentence of five years of mandatory service withing the Bureau's armed forces with three more years of probation after that. The girl's familiar – because she was, well, familiar and subservient to her master – got even more lenient punishment.

"_No prison sentence or anything like that?_" The young Potter asked telepathically, surprised by the judges' final verdict. Well, the girl was only ten, but still... Endangering the population of entire planet sounded like some very serious crime.

"_The Bureau is still young and its forces are spread very thin across the many administered and monitored worlds_." Quint replied. "_Thus, those who repent their criminal actions and have no blood on their hands are enlisted into the Bureau's armed forces instead. They serve their sentence by helping us maintain the order... Those who had killed or do not repent are the only ones that are sent to the prisons._" She explained. And this actually made some sense, even if such a system seemed to be too lenient in Harry's eyes.

* * *

><p>With the final verdict passed and Fate Testarossa guided away by an enforcer and a few Ground Forces mages, the trial was officially over and so Harry and Quint had no real reason to stick around as well. However, as the two of them were walking out of the building, they had almost run into Zest Grangaitz, who was apparently waiting for his subordinate there.<p>

"Captain!" The purple-haired beauty greeted her commander as she saluted. Standing next to her, the young Potter saluted as well. And, the green-eyed teen had to admit that in reality captain Grangaitz looked even more scary than on TV: the man was easily two heads taller than Harry himself was and gave off an impression that he could tear you in apart with his bare hands. Which, considering his status of an S-ranked knight, was something he actually could do... And it didn't look like he was in an exceptionally good mood either.

The young Earthling saw Zest glance at him for a moment, before returning his attention to Quint as the two of them, apparently, had a telepathic conversation. Quite a long one, or at least it felt so for the young Potter. Finally, they were done and warrant officer Nakajima turned to face him.

"I'm sorry, Harry." She said. "But we've been given a long-term mission. Even captain isn't sure how long it will take, so I won't even try scheduling our next lesson. Instead, when we're back, I'll contact you, either directly or through Chidori-san." Harry nodded. "For now, perfect what I've taught you. And if you feel lonely doing so by yourself, you can try contacting Genya-kun..."

"She means captain Nakajima of 108th battalion's 1st company." Zest inserted dryly.

"...I'm sure, he will let you practice with my cute little girls." Quint continued, ignoring him. "You three seemed to get along pretty well so far." The young Potter nodded again.

"Of course, sensei." He said.

"Alright then. We will be heading to the Medical Care Center now." Captain Grangaitz began. "If you are still living at the Magitek Research Department's hostel like your file says, we can give you a lift."

"If you don't mind, sir..." Harry replied.

"That won't be a problem for us." The large man replied, as he headed towards a large jeep-like car with Bureau's numberplate. "And my lovely subordinate over here seems to have taken a liking to you, so..." He trailed off as he fished the car keys out of some pocket in his long coat and turned the ABS off. "Alright, get in." He commanded as he took the driver's seat.

"Thank you." The green-eyed teen said as he took a seat in the back of captain Zest's car.

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	9. Advancements

The ninth chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>karthik9<strong>, **FateBurn**, **Karou WindStalker**, **Opinr**, **Penny is wise**, **ultima-owner**, **thunder18**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>The 10th Wand<strong>, Hedwig is still around. She's just not doing anything beyond being Harry's pet owl, so there was no need to really involve her in the plot yet. That will, however, change with the story advancing into its second arc soon.  
><strong>Zorobak<strong>, depending on what you define as him kicking ass, it might happen even in this chapter.  
><strong>SonicAnime2010<strong>, I've answered your review via PM.  
><strong>serialkeller<strong>, I wouldn't say that you're entirely correct. The unique nature of his magic system indeed makes it a double-edged sword but Harry will ultimately be the one allows the defeat of (or, at least, greatly assists in defeating) NaghtWal.  
><strong>jgkitarel<strong>, actually, not just those two. ;)  
><strong>Impstar<strong>, Harry achieves another solution to his defense problems for now. And a bit later, with some help from a certain red-eyed silver-haired person of mass destruction, his shields will be finally fixed to work properly against Mid-Childan/Belkan magic.  
><strong>Jose19<strong>, Fate will reappear at the end of next chapter,.. Nanoha would probably as well, given how close those two are.  
><strong>lordamnesia<strong>, yes, Harry will participate in (some) events of the Book of Darkness / Tome of the Night Sky arc.

*** AN**: I'm terribly sorry for the delay, but with a deadline on a major project at my work approaching, I didn't really have either time or inspiration to write much these past few days. Thankfully, I'm more or less done with my part now, so...

Anyhow, with this chapter the introductory arc is finally over. Starting with the next chapter, it's the Book of Darkness / Tome of the Night Sky arc.

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter IX: Advancements**

While he did promise Quint-sensei to practice the moves she had taught him as much as possible, Harry thought he should use the time she was away on her mission to do other things as well. And not all of those were about advancing his magic: he really needed to start looking for an apartment for himself – he couldn't live forever in the Magitek Research Department's hostel, now could he?

And so the young Potter began searching for a place he would call his home in the future. Of course, he couldn't buy a piece of real estate until after he became a soldier for the Bureau and, thus, a legal adult, but that certainly didn't mean he couldn't look for one. And with some help from Kyoko-sensei, he had actually found a few places that had caught his eye.

Out those options, two stood out as the best ones the most. The first of those two was a rather small studio-like flat some ten minutes of bus ride away from the TSAB central offices in the city. The other one was a considerably-bigger – but also noticeably more expensive – four room apartments a bit further away form the offices. And while the second option would eat up almost all of his seed money if he went for it, not to mention it was further from his future place of work, Harry actually liked it more as one day he wanted to have a family, and, well, a family needed a lot of living space...

His problems with real estate aside, the green-eyed teen also continued to work on improving his magic. There were some much needed adjustments to his shooting spells that he needed to implement, yet he had been keeping them on ice because of his martial arts training with Quint-sensei.

He didn't forget about his other, wizarding, magic either, even if it had been a year seen he last used it. A quick experiment, though, showed that with his Linker Core now fully developed casting those spells became hard to the point of impossibility: no matter how much he tried, the most he could produce with lighting charm was a barely-visible glimmer. Other charms he had tried produced similarly-weak results if any at all. But the green-eyed teen couldn't say he was really upset about this: while without doubts it would have been very useful, that magic was definitely not required for his new life on the world of Mid-Childa, and, well...

Finally, since everyone around him kept agreeing on the fact that he was ready for a B-rank test, Harry decided to sign up for one, even if he hadn't passed his C-rank test yet. Hopefully, he will be able to pass this exam on his first try, but he wouldn't be too upset if he didn't.

**~/ *** \~**

Early in the morning of the last day of August, Harry found himself standing on the levee of the Cranagan's coastal district, waiting for his examiners to arrive. The exam itself will be taking place in one of the few adjustable training grounds located on the artificial islands sitting in the bay. The green-eyed teen actually had no idea what environment he will have to operate in during his test and that was making the things even more interesting.

His exam was also supposed to be somewhat unique in a sense that normally it was done by two man teams. But as he was his own team thanks to his status of a special cadet, he will be tackling it all by himself... At least, it was promised to him that the difficulty of the exam will be adjusted to make it manageable for a single mage. Hopefully, he hadn't been deceived.

Half an hour before his exam was scheduled to begin, a car bearing the emblem of the Fourth Ground Forces Academy arrived. Within it there were two junior officers the young Potter had never seen before, along with major Corrado, which was kind of surprising as she was a member of Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps and even now wore the Air Force's white uniform. But as strange as that was, Harry could care less about that as he was just glad to have her – someone he was already familiar with – as the head of the commission that would judge his performance in the exam. How he knew that she was indeed the head of the commission? Well, what else could she be as the highest-ranked officer around?

"Good morning, major." He greeted with a salute.

"Morning, special cadet Potter." Head instructor Corrado returned the greeting. "I take it you will indeed be taking the exam." Upon his nod, she continued: "Now, I shall explain you your task for the exam while the arena itself is being set up." She summoned a holographic display, showing a map of what could have been a random part of a random city. "You will start at the edge of the arena and proceed to the opposite end via route A. There, you will pick an item and return to the starting point via route B." The said routes appeared on the map. "You will be given thirty minutes to complete the task."

"I see..." Harry said. "And my opposition?" He asked then: after all, without something to slow him down considerably, half an hour was an awful lot time for such a simple task.

"There will be a number of drones scattered around the area." Another four displays popped into existence, showing the images of the said drones. "Drones shown on the displays one through three should be destroyed. Drones like those from the display number four, however, should not be harmed." Major explained. "Any questions?" The young Potter thought about it for a few seconds. And while the task presented by itself seemed to be simple enough, a little bit more information about his opposition wouldn't be harmful.

"I have some." He said. "The drones on displays two and four look identical, sans the decals. Are there indeed no other ways to tell them apart? Also, is there anything I can be told about their abilities?"

"This is the information you will have to acquire on your own." Head instructor Corrado replied. The green-eyed teen nodded, even if he wasn't exactly happy about that answer. Then again... Having all of the details about a mission from the very beginning was impossible as well. He was about to say something else, but those thoughts had been pushed into the background when the flat surface of an artificial island shimmered and a replica of a part of a city appeared, seemingly out of nothing. "Yes, those buildings are quite solid, despite being mere mana constructs." Major Corrado said, noticing his surprise. "But even if those aren't truly real, I would still advise against causing too much collateral damage." Harry nodded, somehow not thinking about asking how much that 'too much' was...

* * *

><p>A minute before nine in the morning, the green-eyed teen found himself standing at the entrance into the training grounds where his B-rank exam was taking place. He had the map with the routes he was supposed to follow copied into his device so that he would not make any mistakes and lose points or whatever for wandering away from the course.<p>

Above him, floating right in the air, there was a traffic light much like the one used for the car or motorcycle races. Right now, all 'light' were glaring with red at him, but that would change in a few moments. Indeed, as soon as the clock chimed nine o'clock, the red lights began disappearing one by one. And once the last was gone, three green lights shined, telling him that his exam officially began.

Not planning to waste any time at the start line, Harry headed into the depths of the arena right away. The rubble-covered street created for him, though, wasn't the easiest terrain to run, not to mention that the first drones were already approaching him. These drones looked like an orange-sized gray spheres with a metal spikes protruding from its sides. They were also surrounded by a weak purplish shield. And since these drones were of the kind he was supposed to destroy,..

"**Starfall Shooter!**" The magical bullets did a short work of the flying annoyances. Some of them didn't even get a chance to fire at him. And those that did get such a chance... Well, their shots were slow and easy to dodge, so, of course, Harry ended this first confrontation without taking a single hit.

Advancing a little further into the arena, the green-eyed teen almost ran into a much bigger drone that unexpectedly floated from behind some barricade-like construction. And he had almost punched it into bits, before noticing that it was actually of the kind that he needed to preserve. So, instead, he used this opportunity to run a quick scan on the drone with his device in hopes that it would help him later on.

That done, he continued advancing into the depth of the fake city, the lack of machines coming at him was actually making him more and more cautious with each step he took. It turned out, he wasn't paranoid for nothing. As soon as he took a turn to the next street, he came across a whole group of drones waiting for him. At the center of the group there was a really big one, surrounded by a number of those he shouldn't destroy. And then there were a few of evil counterparts for the 'civilian' drones... Before Harry could really think about how to handle the situation he ran into, he had to take cover as a damn barrage of projectiles was fired in his direction.

Peeking from behind a corner of a building, the green-eyed teen surveyed the area. And almost immediately he noticed that the drones hadn't moved from their position. That was very good as it meant he could give his '**Starfall Shooter**''s bullets the appropriately-curved trajectories and snipe the 'bad' drones without having to leave his cover. Doing just that, he was rewarded by a sounds of the few drones' destruction.

Peeking from behind the corner again, the young Potter saw that the big drone – and the 'civilian' ones, of course – was still around and, apparently, unharmed. That thick armor must have protected the thing from his shooter spell. And what was even worse, he couldn't use his only other ranged offensive spell as it was almost guaranteed to harm the 'civilian' drones as well. This meant that he had to get close and use his fist to destroy the damn thing.

Well, time to put his skills in self-augmentation to test, however incomplete those skills might be. Concentrating hard, Harry willed his mana into his legs, thus making them stronger and able to carry him a little bit faster. Hopefully, that would be enough to dodge the drone's shots as he closed in on it. Especially since the drones, being machines, would be more or less immune to his '**Lumino**' spell, a magical equivalent of a flash-bang grenade...

Dashing out of his hiding spot, the green-eyed teen began zigzagging towards the remaining 'evil' drone. And while at first his increased speed and the distance indeed allowed him to dodge all of the shots sent his way, once he got close enough, he was forced to use his physical armor to protect himself instead. But by then he was only about ten or so yards away, though. Quickly covering that distance, Harry punched the drone's cannons with as much strength as he could muster. That, of course, was nowhere near enough to destroy the drone itself, but it still succeeded in rendering it more or less harmless as it couldn't shoot anymore.

Canceling the augmentation of his legs, he instead concentrated on making his arms stronger – his limit for augmentation so far was just two limbs – and using his increased strength there, he proceeded with raining hits upon the now-unarmed mechanical construct. Which proved to be quite durable as only fourth hit landing on the already weak spot finally managed to damage the drone's armor enough to give Harry an access to its insides. The young Potter wasted no time and used that hole in armor to shoot a few bullets of his '**Starfall Shooter**' right at the exposed vulnerable hardware, thus finally taking the drone out of commission entirely.

Done with the opposition here, Harry continued following the desolated and rubble-covered street leading deeper into the arena...

* * *

><p>Another couple of small fights with weaker types of drones later, he finally arrived to a a small plaza where the object he was supposed to retrieve was located. The said object was a small box the size of a deck of playing cards glowing with purplish light that was lying on a pedestal. Well, at least he needn't search for it... Cautiously approaching the said pedestal, Harry picked the box up and quickly tucked it under the shield strapped to his left hand.<p>

Which was probably a good thing as the next moment he noticed four of the big drones approaching him from different directions. But the young Potter wasn't really scared by those machines as they were still far away, giving him more than enough time to dodge their shots. Plus, as there were no 'civilian' drones around, he could use his more powerful spells in retaliation without fear of being penalized.

"**Solar Flare!**" The green-eyed teen called, summoning his so far most powerful – and now properly-named – spell. However, it had been noticeably upgraded since the time he had tired and failed to use it against Quint-sensei in a spar. The said upgrade made it so that Harry no longer needed to be standing still and holding the 'bullet' more or less in his hand while charging it up. Now he only needed to be within fifteen yards from it. And he also could have more than one shot being prepared at once now... These quite significant improvements made some loss in the spell's power and increased preparation time something that didn't really matter.

Once the grapefruit-sized balls of mana finished building up, they were sent flying towards the drones, one for each. And with some satisfaction, the young Potter watched them actually damage the mechanical baddies to the point where they resembled twisted piles of metal more than anything else. This was the first time he had used the improved version in an actual combat, and the results looked pretty good to him.

Harry didn't have much time to admire the destruction caused by his spells, though: he was short time as he still needed to deliver the box he had picked to the commission before the half of an hour was over. So, after he made sure that there will be no shots fired at his back by some hidden drone, the young Potter entered the 'route B', which would lead him to the finishing line.

* * *

><p>The streets of the 'route B' were just as covered in rubble as any other Harry had seen on this arena, but fighting there was harder as there wasn't as much cover. And the drones that were attacking him, while weak individually, were now coming in waves. Dodging or blocking all of their shots was very hard and the green-eyed teen had actually taken a few hits. Thankfully, none of those did serious enough damage to really hinder him, though, those mostly-superficial wounds did hurt quite a lot.<p>

At long last, though, the young Potter could finally see the finish line. Just a little bit more, and he will be able to complete this exam. Even pass it, if he was fast enough: his fights with the hordes of drones had taken quite a bit of time. And since he obviously wanted to pass, he began running as fast as his heavily-armored barrier jacket would allow him to...

"...And done!" Major Corrado announced as Harry finally crossed the finish line. "That was quite close, special cadet Potter, but you managed to finish the task you've been given in time, with fourteen seconds to spare." The green-eyed teen nodded.

"Well,.. That's what I get from being a ground mage without proper spells to improve my mobility." He commented as he pulled the object he had to retrieve from under his shield and handed it over to one of the Ground Forces' officers that was a part of the commission.

"True." Head instructor Corrado agreed. "And I hope that you are working towards changing that."

"Of course." Harry replied with a nod. While the standard methods of achieving flight hadn't worked for him, he had a theory on how he could achieve a similar effect with what he had. Not to mention that once he had finally mastered the self-augmentation technique Quint-sensei had shown him, he will be able to increase his speed while on the ground at will as well.

"Good." Major Corrado agreed. "Anyhow, seeing as you've managed to accomplish the task you have been given within the allotted time and you did so without accumulating any penalties, I can now congratulate you on passing this exam and officially becoming a B-ranked mage, special cadet Potter."

"Thank you, ma'am!" The green-eyed teen replied, taking to standing at attention.

"Now then..." The lady from the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps continued. "Why don't you follow lieutenant Mikasa to the car and have your wounds healed?" She asked, nodding towards one of the Ground Forces officers that had been there to observe the exam. "Meanwhile, we will update your personal records." Harry nodded.

"Yes, ma'am." He said, before following lieutenant Mikasa to the improvised field hospital that was organized next to the car the officers had arrived in...

**~/ *** \~**

"Congratulations on your B-rank, Harry." Kyoko and Mary called the instant the green-eyed teen stepped into her office. Apparently, there already was a party going on in here. Well, 'celebration' would probably be a more appropriate way to describe it as it was more or less just the Device Meisters having some tea with greater than usual amounts of confections.

"Thanks. And you already know?" The young Potter responded, surprised by the fact that they already knew about his success. After all, his exam had ended only a little more than an hour ago.

"Yeah, major Corrado had informed me about it almost as soon as the commission agreed on giving you the rank." Kyoko said. There was a rather long pause, before she continued: "However, we were given another reason for celebration even before that." The blond scientist confided. "Earlier this morning, while you were still taking your exam, a message from the headquarters came. They are requesting Mary-chan to join their Engineering Division as a junior Device Meister."

"Oh..." Harry breathed out. While the position itself didn't sound like it was a very important one, his sempai was still hand-picked by the Bureau's headquarters. It looked like the men there thought highly of her skills and potential. "Congratulations!"

"Thank you, Harry." The green-haired girl replied.

"Are you going to accept that offer?" He asked then. After all, being given such an invitation was supposed to be an honor or something like that.

"Well..." She said. "At first I was worried that it will tear me apart from you and from shishou and from everyone else I know here, and..." Well, Mariel was someone who took being separated from her friends quite hard. She had demonstrated it quite well when Amy-sempai had joined warship "Athra"'s crew. Joining a new collective in a different place would certainly be quite a stress for her. "But shishou had reassured me, and now, I think, I will be accepting their offer."

"I'm sure you will do great as a Device Meister no matter where you go. And we're always just a single call away, right?" the young Potter added some reassurance of his own.

"Thank you." Mary replied. There was a rather long pause, before she continued: "Now why don't we celebrate your success with the exam too, Harry?" She asked, almost rhetorically.

**~/ *** \~**

It was the end of the first week of September, year 0065, and at the TSAB headquarters a certain counter admiral was getting uneasy. And the reason for the said uneasiness was the lack of news of a particular kind coming from either non-administered world 97 itself, or from nearby worlds.

Three months, three whole months had passed since the detectors he had left around in the Hayate Yagami's house had informed him about the awakening of the Book of Darkness, yet there were absolutely no signs of the knights hunting mages or even powerful beasts down to collect their Linker Cores and fill the Book's pages. And it was this lack of enemy's activity that made Gil Graham uneasy.

No, the lack of attacks made by the Book's guardian knights by itself was good news. The problem of the counter admiral's stemmed from the fact his plan to forever end the cursed Book required it to reach completion first. Without being able to even predict when that would happen, though... And he couldn't just have a warship stationed on his home planet's orbit at all time without explaining it to his superiors why he needed that. Not that _they_ would understand his plan anyway!..

At least, counter admiral Graham thought, everything else was ready for the sealing of the Book of Darkness: its final master was an orphan girl whom no one important will miss, and so no wars would start over her disappearance; the special device, optimized for freezing and sealing opponents, was crafted; and it's intended wielder, Chrono Harlaown, was eager as ever to have his revenge on the Book and had been trained more or less specifically for that task by the Liese twins, his trusted familiars.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, on the non-administered world 138, a certain headmaster of a magical school too was deep in his thoughts, even if he wasn't plotting the final end for a world-destroying Lost Logia. Albus Dumbledore, actually, wasn't plotting anything at all. He was just thinking about a student he had lost to an incident and his own mistakes a little over a year ago.<p>

Yes, thirteen months had already passed since young Harry had come in contact with that strange crystal and something had happened to his magic. And the same thirteen months ago he disappeared from the face of the Earth. No matter what magics the aged warlock had tried, he couldn't find even a single trace of him anywhere. But Dumbledore wasn't giving up on his searches yet as he hoped that one day Harry would return to his friends...

That said, the Hogwarts headmaster couldn't help but still be worried about the Potter heir: Dark Lord Voldemort was active again and was preparing his return to the world of the living – that had to be the reason why one of his followers was currently pretending to be this year's DADA professor – and given how obsessed with the certain prophecy Voldemort was, he would not stop until Harry's cold dead body was crushed under his feet. And that was something that should never happen!

Well, Albus thought, Harry was probably safe for now, wherever he was as not even Fawkes the phoenix could reach him. But could it last? Especially since this year Hogwarts would be hosting the revived Triwizard tournament – the Goblet of Fire was a very powerful and dangerous artifact, capable of binding people in magical and nigh-unbreakable contacts without their consent. All that was needed was the said person's name written by their hand.

Dumbledore really hoped that Voldemort didn't know about that, but considering the disguised Death Eater in the castle, he probably did. And planned to used that power of the Goblet to get his revenge against Harry. Either by summoning him and having him participate in the deadly tournament, or by having him suffer the consequences of breaking the contract he didn't even know he was entered in.

Neither of those two things had any right to happen, though, the Hogwarts's headmaster resolved. Harry had the right to live his own life – even if Albus would rather it was here, at his school – and taking that right from him would be nothing short of criminal. Thus, he had to do everything in his power to stop Voldemort's plans regarding the young Potter, whatever they might be, from succeeding.

**~/ *** \~**

It was the middle of September when Harry finally managed to get the self-augmentation technique Quint-sensei had showed him to work properly. Well, at least he was able to use it for his entire body at once now, even though he still needed to devote quite a bit of his concentration to keep it working. That, and he could increase his strength only so much this way...

But, whatever, he finally made that technique work properly for him, and now he could start working on his next big project: learning to create a protective layer of mana around his body. It should give him some additional protection from incoming attacks and, hopefully, provide the base for the spell of his own making that would grant him an ability to fly.

At least in theory. According to his calculations, the surface area of his body was insufficient for that spell to provide the lift required for stable flying. But he could just give himself wings of pure magical energy or something like that to solve that little problem – humans had been dreaming about flying like birds since prehistoric times, after all. Of course, doing something like that sounded like a difficult thing to achieve, but the green-eyed teen was sure that he will be able to pull that off one day.

**~/ *** \~**

Just a few days later, just at the beginning of weekends, Harry was told by Kyoko-sensei that captain Zest's team was back from whatever mission they had been sent onto all the way back in mid-July. In other words, Quint-sensei was back and the lesson she was giving him would resume soon. And the green-eyed teen was eager to see how much he had progressed with his martial arts and magical training since their last meeting. Not to mention, he wanted to know what else the Belkan knight might be willing to teach him.

The said purple-haired beauty contacted him directly via a phone call the next day, scheduling their first-in-a-while meeting to occur on Wednesday next week at the Fourth Ground Forces Academy's training ground number six – the very one they usually used in the past.

* * *

><p>The normal greetings aside, the actual meeting began surprisingly awkwardly: neither Harry himself nor his purple-haired sensei could actually come up with something to say for a good few seconds. Finally, Quint decided to take the charge and broke this somewhat-uneasy silence.<p>

"I heard you have passed your B-rank exam while I was out on my mission?" She asked, receiving a nod from the young Potter in response. "Congratulations on that and on getting one... a few, actually, steps closer to becoming an elite mage."

"Thank you." Harry replied. "And I hope your mission, whatever it was, went well." The purple-haired beauty responded with a shrug.

"You can say that." There was a short pause, before she continued: "Now then, why don't we see, what you've achieved while I was away?" In other words, they were going to have a spar, the one in which they were limited to just martial arts and self-augmentation – after all, those were the things she had been teaching him and his progress in mastering them was what she was interested in.

Their spar didn't last very long as despite all of the advancements he had made, Harry was still nowhere as good when it came to unarmed combat as his sensei. Yet, he had lasted almost two minutes against her and that, in his own eyes, was quite an achievement by itself.

"Well..." Quint began. "I can see that you've improved quite a lot since our last meeting. And while I can't really say that you've mastered the self-augmentation technique already, you are pretty close to achieving that. Likewise, your hand-to-hand combat got better too. I'm actually not sure I can really teach you much anymore; all you need is practice, against different opponents, preferably, the ones using different styles." She said.

"Thank you, sensei." Harry replied, secretly being quite proud that he managed to impress his teacher. He was about to say something more then, but was interrupted by a new voice:

"Found you, Quint-chan." Turning around to look at the source of that voice, the young Potter saw a very youthful – she actually looked like she was still in her late teens – and quite pretty woman with long lavender hair and purple eyes. Her clothes, however, were neither a military uniform nor a barrier jacket. Instead, she was wearing a very civilian pale-yellow dress. ...And one more detail about her: she was quite pregnant, about six or so months along.

"Ah... Hi there, Megane-chan." The purple-haired Belkan knight greeted after a moment of pause. "_This is warrant officer Megane Alpine. She is the third member of my team and specializes in support magic and summoning. Of course, she can... could kick ass in direct combat as well._" She introduced the new-arrived beauty to Harry.

"Good day, warrant officer!" The green-eyed teen greeted then, causing Megane to chuckle.

"Hello there." She greeted back. "And you don't have to greet me like that – I'm off duty and will be like that for a while." The lavender-haired summoner said then, while waving her hand dismissively. Then she communicated something to Quint via telepathy, causing the said knight to blush a little. Whatever response Nakajima-sensei gave her, once again via telepathy, made Megane giggle.

"Alright." The purple-haired beauty interjected sharply. "I've already seen the progress you've made with your martial arts and self-augmentation, Harry." She continued in a gentler voice. "But what about your overall level? She we have another spar, the anything goes one, to see how much you've improved as a whole?" She asked then.

"Okay." The young Potter replied, summoning his barrier jacket back as he switched his device to its active form.

* * *

><p>The end result of that spar was still quite predictable: Harry lost. Though, that certainly didn't mean that he hadn't improved since the last time. Today, he actually managed to surprise Quint-sensei by his new method of charging his shooting spells up, thus landing a good solid hit on her. And he had also made her use her rare skill that allowed her to create solid 'roads' out of mana wherever she pleased, for the first time ever... In other words, he had indeed improved a lot over the last three months.<p>

The purple-haired beauty was quick to admit that too, noting that his current B-rank was well-earned. Still, just like Harry himself had said, his lack of proper mobility skills was becoming a significant weakness, just like his problems with proper magical defenses, without overcoming which he will be hard-pressed to advance through the power ranks further.

Megane had also added her two cents to the assessment of the green-eyed teen's magic prowess. According to her, either through nurture or because of his unique magic system inclination, he was better suited for ranged combat. Thus, while being able to fight efficiently in any situation was great, he should concentrate more on his shooting spells and using them to their full potential... And she actually was quite willing to lend him a hand there... It looked like Harry had gained another teacher to show him the ropes of the magical combat...

**~/ *** \~**

Since Megane, being on the parental leave, had little else to do, she dropped by from time to time and helped with Harry's training. Both by having her personal summon – a humanoid black insectoid called Kuroryuu – act as a sparring partner for the young Potter and by giving him some advices on how he should approach developing his mana control further.

It were actually her instructions that finally allowed the green-eyed teen to properly generate a mana cloak around himself. The said cloak, when tested with a few D-rank and even C-rank shooting spells, proved itself to be a pretty reliable defense, as it significantly weakened the incoming attacks. This made Harry quite happy: he loathed being a glass cannon, but couldn't really change it until now as his '**Lesser Aegis**' shield was quite useless at stopping any magic thrown its way.

Anyhow, with his mana cloak finally mastered by the middle of October, Harry began working on giving himself wings and, subsequently, the ability to fly. But, of course, extending his mana away from his body was not easy, even without molding it into some complicated shapes. And the further away from his body the young Potter tried to project his magical energy, the harder controlling it was. Not to mention that since it all was raw mana manipulation, his device couldn't help him any with it... But he wasn't going to give easily, not when he was so close to achieving the coveted ability to fly!

* * *

><p>Three weeks. That's how much time it took Harry to finally understand how he should manipulate his mana into more or less stable forms extending away from his body. But he finally succeeded! And now he could give himself 'wings'... Well, those actually looked like prolonged rectangles sticking out of his back – a pair of bigger ones forming the upper, main, wings; and another, smaller, pair creating additional, lower, ones – but it was still some major progress.<p>

Now, all that was left for him to do was actually making his wings generate some lift. And, of course, learning to fly without devoting all of his mind's power to that: after all, what use his flight would be in combat if it prevented him from using any spells to actually fight? The green-eyed teen, though, was sure that he will manage to overcome that problem as well, just like he had it with many other before. Thus, he delved into his training with even greater passion than ever before.

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	10. The first mission

The tenth chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>FateBurn<strong>, **puma1sunfire**, **Fellow**, **lordamnesia**, **Opinr**, **karthik9**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>Jose19<strong>, I've answered your review via PM.  
><strong>Impstar<strong>, **celf**, hehe. This chapter should answer that question.  
><strong>LuxEterna1<strong>, he will switch to that modus operandi later on when he has greater understanding of how exactly his magic system works. Right now Harry is just not willing to 'experiment' as any mistake can result in huge collateral damage and, possibly, a few deaths.  
><strong>SonicAnime2010<strong>, the answer for the first part of your review is the same with the one I gave to **Impstar **and** celf**. As for the test, the drones are the same as seen in episode one of StrikerS. This should answer your review as well, **ultima-owner**.  
><strong>Ranmaleopard<strong>, Harry will be the one to propose the solution to the NachtWal problem that doesn't require Reinforce to sacrifice herself. But Hayate will remain as her mistress. Rein will also eventually gain a romantic interest in Harry, but that will happen only after a few months of just friendship between them... Which would be somewhere closer to the end of this arc.  
><strong>serialkeller<strong>, no, Harry will not be bound by the Goblet this time around.  
><strong>Penny is wise<strong>, he will.  
><strong>Jerrac<strong>, well, the plot kicks off this chapter... Though the real action will begin only in the next one.  
><strong>Guest<strong>, so, having a Lost Logia that provides him with nearly-infinite mana without any drawbacks (aside from a crystal being stuck in his chest) is not enough? Well, I think I will have Harry keep his parseltongue ability, which can actually be considered a Rare Skill.

*** AN**: The Book of Darkness / Tome of the Night Sky arc begins!

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter X: The first mission**

Albus Dumbledore wanted to congratulate himself on a ensuring that the selection of the Triwizard tournament champions went without any problems. Indeed, exactly three champions were chosen – one for each of the three schools taking part in the tournament – and all of them had been in the Great hall of Hogwarts when their names had appeared out of the Goblet's flames.

That, of course, didn't mean that no attempts to rig the champion selection results were made. There was an actually significant number of too young to participate students trying to enter their names into the Goblet. But those didn't really have any chances of being selected anyway... More worrisome was the fact that the disguised Death Eater had also tried to put someone's name into the Goblet, while laying some additional charms onto it.

And while Dumbledore had no proof of it, he was still quite sure that the fake DADA professor tried to make Harry Potter into an unwilling and _fourth_ champion of the tournament. And was Harry actually there, in the castle, and attending the classes with his classmates, that would have worked... Thankfully, the Goblet would choose only those who had written their names themselves, and Albus made sure to remove any and all papers bearing the young Potter's signature from the school's archives.

Still, it was too early for old warlock to relax. Not only he still had a Death Eater in his school, masquerading as a DADA professor, but the said man's attempt to tamper with the champions' selection was a proof enough that the Dark Lord was planning something grand, something that would likely plunge the world into the Darkness again. And, of course, Dumbledore as the leader of the Light had to prevent that from happening.

But knowing nothing about what his opponents were planning, how could he do anything to stop them? Thus, no matter how much he loathed it, Albus had to allow a known criminal who had never repented for his sins to walk among the children of his school, so that he could get a glimpse of the Dark Lord's plans through that man. And the aged warlock really hoped that no one would end up hurt or worse because of that... Every victory had to paid for in blood, but that blood had to be of warriors and adults, not of innocent children...

**~/ *** \~**

It was near the end of November when Harry finally got to the point where he could maintain his flight almost subconsciously. At least, for as long as he was just hovering above the same spot. Moving around still required some concentration, but certainly not to the same degree it did when he first managed to take off. Back then even a single stray thought might have become a big problem for him; now... Now he could even shoot and reliably hit stationary targets while doing some simpler aerobatics!

Hell, even his wings reflected just how much he had progressed. Whereas in the beginning those looked more like a bunch of prolonged rectangles sticking out of his back, by now his 'wings', both upper and lower pairs, became much more streamlined and actually resembled falcon wings. And given that his mana was naturally pale-blue, almost white in color, both Kyoko-sensei and Quint-sensei had joked that when he was flying, he looked a lot like an angel.

Yet, despite all of the progress he had made with his flight technique, the young Potter knew that a proper aerial fight would still be a little too much for him. For now, at least...

Anyway, gaining 'wings' wasn't the only thing Harry had accomplished in these past weeks. He had finally graduated from his special cadet program in the middle of November and joined the Mid-Childan Ground Forces' 95th Battalion as a Private Second Class shortly afterwards. Well, that's how it was on the paper. In reality, he continued training under Kyoko-sensei and Quint-sensei and appeared in his unit's headquarters only for the events that required his attendance.

**~/ *** \~**

It was December the fourth when counter admiral Gil Graham finally got his confirmation that the knights deployed by the Book of Darkness were finally on the move. The said confirmation came in the form of a battle the aforementioned knights fought against the mages stationed aboard of warship "Arthra" and one civilian collaborator from the non-administered world 97.

The said civilian collaborator, a girl named Takamachi Nanoha from Uminary city, Japan, ended up seriously wounded and got her Linker Core absorbed into the Book. According to the doctors, though, she will make a full recovery in just a couple of weeks.

What had surprised the counter admiral, though, was the apparent reluctance to kill the Book's knights had displayed. The Takamachi girl wasn't the first victim of the knights: the observation group stationed on the planet had been attacked earlier the same day, and neither of those two mages had been killed either... It was almost like Hayate Yagami – the current, and hopefully the last, mistress of the Book of Darkness – had made the knights swear an oath not to kill.

If that was indeed so, sacrificing the girl would be an even more terrible and despicable thing to do. Yet, no matter the circumstances, it had to be done: no matter how kind its mistress was, once the Book was completed, it would turn into an uncontrollable berserk that would indiscriminately attack everything in front of it. And simply destroying it was useless as the Book would just recreate itself on a different world to continue this cycle of death and destruction. It had to be sealed, which was what counter admiral planned to do with Chrono Harlaown's hands.

Still, sealing the berserk Book of Darkness required that monster to be defeated first, and that was not something a single mage could do. Hell, even the entire combat-capable crew of warship "Arthra" with addition of the Takamachi girl – a very strong mage all by herself – wasn't guaranteed to win that fight. More manpower was needed to contain the Book while Chrono was sealing it away,..

Yet, because of the various reasons related to the Bureau's internal politics and the chain of command, counter admiral Graham couldn't provide that manpower. He was already pushing it by issuing an order to activate the Arc-en-Ciel cannon aboard of "Arthra". Having another warship or a powerful team of enforcers to support them would immediately launch an investigation into his doings and ultimately ruin his plan to end that world-destroying monstrosity forever.

But he wasn't giving up yet: he knew there had to be something he could do to increase the chances of the Book being sealed successfully. He just needed to find out what that something was... If known powerhouses were out of question, what about those that hadn't earned themselves a reputation yet? Having some of those temporarily join the "Arthra"'s crew wouldn't attract as much attention and the plan to forever end the Book of Darkness might still survive intact. Now he just needed to find such mages... Which was not as easy as it sounded: those that fit the bill for power were extremely rare and they never remained unknown for long.

Still, Gil Graham wasn't about to give up just yet. So, he began looking through the Bureau's databases in hopes of finding a powerful mage or two that had joined the ranks recently and hadn't made a name for themselves. And it looked like Lady Luck was on his side: private second class Harry Potter of the Mid-Childan Ground Forces' 95th Battalion looked like a good candidate. He had graduated from the cadet program less than a month ago and thus had no chance to acquire a major reputation for himself yet. And the unique nature of his magic that allowed his spells to more or less ignore standard defenses meant that even the planet-killed monster that the Book of Darkness will turn into upon its completion would be susceptible to his attacks...

Now that he thought about it, wasn't Mr. Potter that boy with a reactor-type Lost Logia stuck in his chest that the investigatory ship "Leto" had found on one of the non-administered worlds a year and a half ago? Yes, that actually was him... And that certainly made getting him to temporarily join "Arthra"'s crew more challenging, but counter admiral Graham was sure that he will be able to do that. How?.. Well, he wasn't sure yet.

**~/ *** \~**

Even though he did buy himself that four rooms apartment as soon as he became a Bureau's soldier and a legal adult, Harry still lived in the room at the Magitek Research Department hostel – his new apartment needed a lot of new furniture and some other renovations which he didn't have money for at the moment. And while his new salary was far from bad, it would still take months if not a few years before he could finally move into that apartment... Thankfully, Kyoko-sensei didn't mind him still living at the hostel even if he technically wasn't a member of the department anymore...

Anyhow, December the sixth for the young Potter began more or less like any other morning would: with an alarm clock, at six in the morning. Shaking himself awake, Harry donned his training clothes and headed outside for some jogging and other _light_ physical training. Light for the magic users of this world, that is... Whatever the case might be, the green-eyed teen was back to his room in about an hour, and a long hot shower later, he was finally ready to begin his day.

Which, of course, meant checking his inbox for any new post first. And he was a bit surprised to see a letter from Quint among the rest of his correspondence – the purple-haired Belkan Knight usually called him on a videophone if there was something they needed to talk about. Opening the letter, Harry immediately understood why she would use mail instead of just making a call:

Featured prominently in the message there was a photo of a tired but definitely happy Megane sitting in a bed in some random room at a hospital, holding her newborn daughter, Lutecia, in her hands. And Harry couldn't help but agree with Quint-sensei that 'little Lulu' might just be the most adorable thing in the whole damn world!

Smiling again at the scene depicted on the photo, the green-eyed teen began writing a congratulatory letter to Megane, who had become a good friend of his over the course of the last few months, wishing the very best to her and her little Lutecia.

**~/ *** \~**

"So... What did captain Steinmetz want from you today?" 'Doctor' Chidori asked as Harry walked into her laboratory in the early afternoon of December the fourteenth. This was the first time the green-eyed teen had been summoned to the unit's headquarters without a prior warning, so, naturally, his sensei was quite interested in what the commanders wanted from her student.

Instead of replying verbally, though, the young Potter merely handed her an official-looking paper he had been holding in his hands until now. Printed on that paper there was an order from the Ground Forces' higher-ups that basically told Harry to pack his things up and depart for the TSAB headquarters in the Dimensional Space. And once there, he was supposed to (temporarily) join the crew of a warship "Arthra", once its upgrade was complete.

"Oh..." Was all that Kyoko-sensei could say. Seeing this order was as big a surprise for her as it must have been for the green-eyed teen himself. While sudden transfers between the different branches of military like this one did happen, they were quite rare. And for one to target a person who had been an actual soldier for barely a month was almost unheard of. The lack of proper explanation as to why this transfer was happening also made the whole thing at least a little bit suspicious...

"Well, at least Amy-sempai will be there, right?" Harry finally spoke.

"Yeah, she will." 'Doctor' Chidori said as she nodded in response, while also handing the papers back. The blond scientist could see how changing collectives he working with so suddenly would be a great stress for her student. Having a familiar face aboard "Arthra" would certainly make the transition easier for him... Alas, there wasn't much if anything she herself could do to help him.

"Sensei?" Harry said after a long and uneasy pause. "You know that I have a pet owl, Hedwig, right?" Kyoko nodded – it was to forget such an unusual pet, even if it was months since she had last seen the bird. "Can you take care of her while I'll be gone?" He asked then.

"If nobody else agrees, I can look after her, but..." Kyoko replied. She was a bit allergic and while short-time exposures were okay with her, being stuck in the same apartment with an owl for God known how long would not be exactly a good thing for her. Even if Hedwig would without any doubts be out hunting most of the time.

"Thank you, sensei." The green-eyed teen while mentally ordering his device to send Quint a message that he wanted to talk to her as soon as possible: calling her directly would be a bad idea since as an investigator her workload was ...fluctuating. That, and distracting her from doing her job would be a very thing...

* * *

><p>The young Potter was quite surprised when the purple-haired Belkan knight rang him up in less than an hour. Then again, because of how erratic her work hours were, one couldn't tell, whether she was done for the day already or had just woken up.<p>

"You wanted to speak with me, Harry?" She asked.

"Well... You see..." The green-eyed teen said, before doing his best to explain her the sudden order he had been given this morning. And much like Kyoko-sensei prior to her, Quint found the whole thing to be rather suspicious: the newbies normally weren't transferred around so suddenly. Especially across the military branches and to warships that already had complete crews... But she didn't say anything about it out aloud. Not to mention that she had her hands still full with the still-recent theft of the Shroud of the Saint King from the Church and could not launch an investigation of her own into this matter.

"So... You want a piece of advice on how act in this situation?" She asked instead. After all, as an investigator she had worked alongside with many many different people.

"That too..." Harry replied after a short pause. "However, originally, I wanted to ask, whether you and your family can take care of pet owl while I'm away at "Arthra". Hedwig might be quite self-sufficient, but..." He trailed off there. Still, Quint got what he wanted to say.

"Well, I don't see any problems with that." She said with a nod. "And I think it will do my little girls good to have some responsibility too... So, bring your owl over when you have time – I'm staying at home for the next two days."

"Thank you, sensei." The young Potter thanked, before asking: "Speaking of your girls, how are they? It has been quite some time since I've seen them last."

"Same as always,.." The purple-haired beauty replied with a shrug. "Ginga still tries to pretend that she's an adult already and Subaru is still just as much of a crybaby as you probably remember her to be." Well, yeah, when outside of martial arts training under her mother little Subaru could be seen with tears in her eyes a lot. And she was relying on others to support her or help her out quite often too.

"Good to hear that they both are alright..." Harry replied with a shrug of his own. "Anyway, thank you again, sensei. I'll drop by with Hedwig tomorrow morning, if that's okay with you." Quint nodded.

"We'll be waiting."

**~/ *** \~**

The next day, Harry found himself standing in front of the Nakajima residence's door. The green-eyed teen knew that he definitely wasn't giving his almost-familiar, Hedwig, away forever, but for whatever reason he still hesitated to ring the bell... And the said owl's desire to stay close to him – she had absolutely refused to go into her cage and rode all the way here perched on his shoulder – wasn't really helping him any. Still, with his shuttle to the Bureau's headquarters a little more than three hours away from now, he needed to get moving.

Taking deep breath to steel himself, the young Potter rand the doorbell. There were maybe fifteen seconds of silence, before he heard the sound of the locks being unlocked. Another few moments later the door opened, revealing Quint in ...some very homy clothes, with her hair down as well. And given that this was the first time Harry had seen her in anything other than her Ground Forces' uniform or her knight's armor...

"Come in, come in." The purple-haired beauty invited him inside, making the young Potter snap out of his momentary stupor from seeing her dressed so casually... Accepting the invitation, Harry stepped inside the apartment, immediately noticing the two daughters of the Nakajima family peeking from behind the corridor's corner, curiosity burning in their eyes. "So, this is your pet owl?" Quint continued meanwhile. "She's quite a beauty." Upon hearing that, Hedwig let out a haughty bark.

"Quint-chan, are you having more guests?" A new voice from within the depth's of the apartment. And the green-eyed teen recognized that voice as ...Megane's? Indeed, a few moments later the Belkan summoner appeared in his view, her little daughter in her hands. "Oh, hello there, Harry." She greeted then as he eyed drifted towards the snowy owl perched on his shoulder, something that didn't go unnoticed by Hedwig.

"Good morning." The young Potter greeted back, before turning to Quint, as he continued: "Where can I place these?" He asked then, while nodding towards his owl's cage and other related things he was holding in his hands.

"Hm..." The purple-haired knight replied thoughtfully. "Why don't you leave them in the girls' room?" Nodding, Harry kicked off his shoes and followed the lady of the house into the apartment – which actually was surprisingly modest, considering that Quint herself was a very successful investigator and her husband was a Ground Forces captain, almost a major actually...

Soon the two of them were standing in the room belonging to Ginga and Subaru. Which didn't quite look like Harry imagined a girl's room to be. Then again, the two daughters of the Nakajima family weren't your average princess-like girls... If anything, those two were destined to be the future magical martial arts experts. And it showed.

"I'll ask you to keep the window open at all times so that Hedwig can return to her perch whenever she wants to." The young said as he placed the cage onto the windowsill and began arranging other owl-care supplies there. "She'll normally hunt for her food herself, somewhere." He continued. "So all that you will need to do is make sure that she has some water waiting for her. And clean the cage once in a while." Quint nodded: so far, taking care of an owl didn't sound like something overly complicated. Ginga and Subaru who were currently standing in the doors of their room probably thought something along the same lines.

"Alright." The purple-haired knight said. "Anything else?"

"Nothing that I can think of right now." Harry replied. "But if something happens, you know how to contact me." Quint nodded again. There was a rather lengthy pause, before the young Potter continued: "And once again thank you for agreeing to look after my Hedwig while I'm away."

"Don't worry about that, I'm sure your owl won't be a bother to us, she seems to be a very clever bird." His sensei replied. Her two daughters nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

"She can be quite stubborn too, though..." The green-eyed teen commented as he did his best to get his 'pet' to leave her current perch, his shoulder, much to the said owl's displeasure. "Now, be a good girl and listen to Quint-sensei and Ginga-chan and Subaru-chan." He said to Hedwig as he finally managed to pry her off himself. "And don't worry, I'll be back before you know." The owl let out a displeased hoot and defiantly showed her backside to Harry, before taking off and flying out of the window. Quint seemed to find the whole scene to be amusing, if her giggle was anything to go by.

"Will you be leaving now then, Harry?" She asked next. The green-eyed teen nodded in response.

"Probably." He said with a shrug. "My shuttle to the TSAB headquarters is in less than three hours, and I better not be late for it."

"Good luck then." The purple-haired knight said as she gave Harry a one-handed hug. "Make sure to bring us some interesting story about your adventures out there." His only response, though, was an embarrassed smile.

"Already leaving?" Megane, who had somehow sneaked into the room without Harry and, apparently, even Quint herself noticing it, asked. "But what about us? You haven't even said 'hello' to Lulu yet."

"Alright, alright." The green-eyed teen said as he walked up to her. There was no hug between them, though. Instead, the lavender-haired beauty conveyed her deep trust in him by letting him carefully take her young into his hands... Little Lutecia looked so small and fragile, even in his hands, yet... "She's beautiful." Harry whispered.

"She likes you." Megane said in a whisper. Though, how she could tell that, he'd never know as 'Lulu' was soundly asleep. Probably something to do with a link connecting a mother and her child... Giving the pretty summoner a soft smile, the young Potter carefully returned little Lutecia to her mother.

He then knelt in front of Ginga and Subaru and balled his hands into fists. It took the girls maybe a couple of seconds, but when they finally got what he wanted, they quite eagerly bumped their fists with his ones, bringing a chuckle out of their mother.

"Now, be good girls and take care of my Hedwig while I'm away." He said. "And I'll be back with some interesting stories for you... Uhm... Soon." Dammit, he really had no idea for how long he will be away: all that his orders said was that he will be temporarily joining warship "Arthra"'s crew...

"Of course!" The two daughters of the Nakajima family chorused. Giving them a smile as he ruffled their hair a bit, Harry stood up and looked at his watch. Somehow, his saying goodbyes took much more time than he imagined. No, he wasn't late for his shuttle yet, but he better be going now if he wanted to still be on time.

"Alright." The green-eyed teen said. "I'm sorry to cut this short, but I really have to go now."

"Sure." Quint said with a nod. "Let us see you off then."

**~/ *** \~**

Some eight hours later, Harry found himself in the huge internal docks of the Bureau's headquarters, looking at warship "Arthra". He'd have entered it and introduced himself to his new colleagues already, but all of the warship's entrances were sealed and, according to the foreman, the captain and her men were away on a meeting with one of the counter admirals at the moment. Thus, all the young Potter could do was waiting... And not knowing when captain Harlaown will be back, he couldn't even go and have a live meeting with Mariel-sempai!

Still, he did give her a videocall and had a small chat with her... Which ended with him listening to a very interesting story about two intelligent devices requesting the installation of the Cartridge system so that they could better protect their masters. Despite the fact that Mid-Childan devices of really any kind were not meant to work with Belkan technology. Still, Mary said she had installed the requested components into those devices and, according to the reports she received from their owners, they were performing exceptionally so far.

The young Potter wasn't sure for how long he had been waiting, but, eventually, captain Lindy Harlaown showed up – given her distinctive long tealish-green hair, she was not someone you could easily miss. And yes, once he had gotten over his initial shock about being transferred, Harry did some research on whom he will be serving under in the foreseeable future. According to what he managed to dig up, she was a reasonable authority figure, sometimes said to be too kind even, but still a very effective commander. Anyway...

"Good day, captain." Harry saluted as Lindy Harlaown, followed by the rest of warship "Arthra"'s crew – among whom the young Potter could spy the captain's son and enforcer-in-training Chrono – got close enough. Lindy paused for a moment, before replying with a salute of her own.

"You must be Harry Potter." She said. "Counter admiral Graham said that you will be joining my crew for the duration of our current mission." Judging by her tone, though, she wasn't sure she agreed with her superior about this new addition to the crew. "Anyway..." She continued as she used her authority to unseal the warship. "I'm sorry but your briefing will have to wait for a little bit, we need to make sure that all systems aboard of "Arthra" are working fine after her refitting. You can settle in in your room, meanwhile. Chrono will show you your quarters." She finished, while looking at her son – who despite supposedly being as old as Harry himself was, looked more like he was about ten.

"Of course, _captain_. Follow me, Potter-san." The maybe-teen enforcer-in-training said. Then, without really waiting for Harry to gather his belongings, he headed inside the warship...

* * *

><p>It was only after "Arthra" finally set sails a couple of hours later when the young Potter was finally invited to the briefing room for, well, his briefing. The said room, much like the one he had seen aboard of "Leto", was a spacious hall with a long rectangular table in the center. Right now, though, out of many chairs around the table, only two were occupied by both Harlaowns. Lindy was actually having a cup of... – was that green tea with milk? – in front of her.<p>

"Alright, shall we begin our meeting?" She asked, once Harry took a seat at the table. Upon his nod, the teal-haired Dimensional Navy officer continued: "Have you been informed about the nature of our current mission?" The young Potter shook his head.

"No. I was only informed that I will be joining your crew for the time being, ma'am." Lindy sucked in her breath, somewhat annoyed by how secretive the higher-ups can be.

"Hm... Let me first ask you what you know about Lost Logia then."

"Considering that I have one stuck in my chest, I did some research on the topic." Harry replied.

"Yeah, your file does mention that you have class three reactor type one merged with your body." There was a short pause, before the teal-haired captain continued: "Then, I'm sure you've heard about one called 'the Book of Darkness', hm?" Yes, since it was one of the most documented Lost Logia, Harry had read more than a few entries about it during his research.

"Class one Lost Logia that is responsible for the destruction of a number of inhabited worlds in the past?" He asked cautiously, already fearing the direction this 'briefing' was taking. This time, it actually was Chrono, who answered him.

"Yes." The enforcer-in-training replied as an image of a thick leather-bound tome with a Belkan cross on its cover appeared above the center of the table. "And it appears that the Book of Darkness has resurfaced yet again. This time on the non-administered world 97. We do not know who is the Book's master yet, but we've seen all four of its guardian knights." The image of the tome was then replaced by photos of four people.

One of them was a rather tall blue-eyed woman with long pink hair in a high ponytail. She was wearing pink and silver battle dress and her armed device looked like a single-edged sword. The second knight had the appearance of a preteen girl with her red hair made into two braids. Her clothes consisted of a blood-red battle dress and a red hat, while her weapon of choice was a metallic hammer. The third of the four knights was a woman with short blond hair, who was wearing a greenish dress and a matching hat. She had no visible armed device. The final knight was actually a familiar, whose human form looked like a tall and well-muscled man with tanned skin and bluish-white hair. He was wearing a sleeveless blue jacket, blue pants with a chain hanging from a thick red belt and a pair of heavily-armored gauntlets.

"Now." Lindy Harlaown continued. "Our job is to prevent the guardian knights from completing the Book – which requires them to drain Linker Cores of defeated mages or more powerful magic-capable beasts – and unleashing it upon the planet."

"With all due respect, ma'am." Harry interjected. "I'm afraid, I'm not exactly the right person to be assisting you on this mission. I don't have any experience when it comes to actual combat, and I'm seriously lacking when it comes to defense."

"Unfortunately, our superiors think differently." The teal-haired captain replied. "I will admit that the recorded ability of your shooting spells to pierce all standard shields and protective barriers of both Mid-Childan and Belkan systems does sound like something that can be very useful for our mission, but... Like you yourself said, you are simply not ready to enter the combat against the opponents of the Book's guardian knights' caliber." She made a short pause, before continuing: "Which is why I won't be sending you into the field unless there is absolutely no other way. However, you might find yourself doing other jobs that will assist our main fighters. And in case we fail to stop the Book from being completed..." Here she trailed off.

"I see..." Harry breathed out. "I thank you for your understanding, ma'am. I shall do my best to ensure the success of your mission."

**~/ *** \~**

Warship "Arthra" was already en route to the non-administered world 97 – an alternative Earth – when they received a call from Amy Limietta, the officer currently in charge of the forces left back there on the planet. Harry didn't hear what exactly his sempai had said to captain Harlaown, but as soon as the call was over, "Arthra" immediately changed her course and headed for an uninhabited mostly-desert planet in a nearby dimensional fold instead. Apparently, a fight between the Book's guardian knights and two of the Bureau agents was happening there.

By the time the warship finally reached that world, though, the fight was already over and a jamming barrier that prevented any forms of communication with the combatants was gone as well. And not a minute after "Arthra" settled on the planet's orbit, the bridge received a request for a transfer from the surface. Along with a request to get the medical bay ready, unfortunately.

And since the ship was operating with the minimal possible crew at the moment and Harry himself was not occupied by something more important, he was ordered to help getting the wounded fighters from the transportation chamber to the medical bay by the captain. The young Potter didn't really mind this though: he higher-ups had transferred him there so that he could help the crew with whatever mission they had and, well... not doing anything while everyone else was busy just didn't sit right with him...

Thus the green-eyed teen found himself moving towards the transportation chamber as fast as he could without actually breaking into run. And despite the said chamber being pretty close to the bridge, he still arrived there only moments before the agents who had requested the transfer teleported in.

These agents turned out to be a pair of women – actually, a woman and a preteen girl – and they both were someone whom Harry had seen before, even if just once. The orange-haired woman with canine ears was no one other than Testarossa's familiar, Arf. And while she sported quite a few bruises and some minor cuts, not to mention being more or less on her last legs, she still looked much better than her mistress, whom she was carrying in her arms: Fate was unconscious and her battered form looked a whole lot paler than was healthy.

But before he could voice his surprise at seeing those two here, "Arthra"'s nurse arrived at the scene and snapped him out of it. By ordering him to take the Testarossa girl off her familiar's hands and carry her to the medical bay, while she herself assisted the orange-haired dog-girl there.

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	11. The battle begins

The eleventh chapter of the "Bureau agent Potter" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>Impstar<strong>, if you are talking about Fate and Arf, Harry watched their trial with Quint. If you are talking about Subaru and Ginga... Harry meeting them so far had been happening off-screen but was still mentioned in the story.  
><strong>chm01<strong>, **ultima-owner**, **keeper of all lore**, **FateBurn**, **Teucrian**, **karthik9**, **Jose19**, **serialkeller**, **Opinr**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **Ranmaleopard**, **thunder18**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>celf<strong>, **HolyKnight5**, canonically, the familiar creation ritual in "Nanoha" is never described. And truth to be said, I kinda forgot about it when I plotted Hedwig's life...  
><strong>roanoak<strong>, **Guest #1**, Book of Darkness absorbs Linker Cores. In Harry's case, while it is closely connected to his own Lost Logia, those two aren't the same. So the Book won't absorb his Logia as well, just his Core... Not that even that will happen.  
><strong>SonicAnime2010<strong>, no, Voldie will be allowed to run Harry-free for a few more arcs. He is scheduled to face the might of Mages/Knights in the fifth one, and we've barely started the second. Though, the third will also be taking place on Harry's home world.  
><strong>Guest #2<strong>, eh? Didn't he get one like three chapters ago? Granted, his doesn't have cartridge system (yet), but... Let's be honest, his is built based on Mid-Childan technology, and Raising Heart and Bardiche are the first Mid-Childan devices to have that system. It is only after their success that every device you come across gains a cartridge system.

*** AN**: The first part of the battle against the Berserk Defense Program. Unfortunately for you - and here I totally agree with my beta - Harry sits it out while doing other duties assigned to him by Lindy. Yet this is actually quite reasonable as he is not seen as someone ready to combat that monster. Remember, he is a nearly-defenseless rookie with no proper combat experience. Just because his spells are able to penetrate standard shields he isn't automatically the perfect frontline fighter. By the end of the chapter, though, he joins the 'main' fight anyway (which will be happening in the next chapter).

Also, just like I've promised, good Reinforce makes her appearance in this chapter.

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter XI: The Battle begins**

Harry had barely stepped out of the medical bay after he carried Testarossa there, when a white-and-brown blur collided with him, almost knocking him off his feet. The said blur turned out to be a ten years old girl with blue eyes and brown hair made into a side-tail; she was wearing a barrier jacket that looked like a white dress with blue accents. This girl then mumbled something about being sorry, before disappearing into the medical bay.

"What was that?" The young Potter breathed out, still confused by what had just happened.

"I guess, you've just met Nanoha-chan, Harry." Captain Lindy Harlaown said as she came into his view. The green-eyed teen wasn't exactly sure why she was there, but if he were to guess, she just wanted to be reassured that her subordinates were fine.

"She seemed to be way to energetic to be in a need of medical attendance." He observed. Indeed, anyone who could rush anywhere like that couldn't possibly be seriously wounded or whatever. Though, now that he thought about it, she too looked like she had been through a fight.

"No, not this time..." Lindy replied. "However, she is very worried about her friend." Being far from stupid, Harry could easily connect the dots: this Nanoha girls was friends – very good friends – with Testarossa. Though, he wasn't sure how that could be possible as only Testarossa and her familiar had been judged in the aftermath of the Jewel Seed incident... Captain Harlaown noticed his confusion. "Yeah, those two are really close nowadays. As for how that came to be... Well... It's not really my story to tell." She said, implying that at some point in the past Nanoha and Fate had been enemies.

"O-okay..." Harry breathed out, not really knowing what else he could say in response to that. There was a lengthy pause, before he spoke again: "And, you know,.. After today I don't really know what to think about Testarossa-san anymore. I mean, how can someone who – according to the reports – had put the lives of an entire planet in danger be so small and, dare I say, fragile?" Lindy furrowed her brows a bit, apparently not happy with the way he was seeing the blond girl in question.

"Once again, this is not my story to tell." She said after a short pause. "But, Fate-chan didn't collect the Jewel Seeds because she wanted to hurt anyone. Quite the contrary, actually. It's just, the person who had her doing that wasn't... the most considerate one, when it comes to... shall we say, collateral damage." Another pause. "And you are right, triple-A rank mage she might be, Fate-chan is still just a girl, and a one that didn't have exactly the happiest upbringing too."

"I see,.." Harry said quietly. Should what captain Harlaown had just said be true, then he might really be unreasonably prejudiced against the Testarossa girl. And considering that he might end up working alongside with her, he probably should discard everything he had heard about her past actions and his own interactions with her show him just what kind of a person Fate Testarossa was...

"Alright." Lindy said then. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to check on Fate-chan's condition." The green-eyed teen responded with a nod as he courteously stepped aside, thus completely unblocking the doors leading into the medical bay.

"I'll be on the bridge, if you need me, captain." He added then. While getting the full story of what had happened during the Jewel Seeds incident, including the motivations of those who took parts in it, seemed like an important thing to do if he wanted to understand Testarossa-san, right now was definitely not the best time for such 'interrogations'...

Unfortunately for the young Potter, it will be quite some time before he would finally get his chance to hear the true and complete account of those events. After all, being a citizen of a non-administered world, Nanoha-san didn't live aboard of "Arthra", and Fate-san had her own masquerade with the local muggles to keep up, so she too left the warship once the nurse had declared her to be in a good-enough physical health. As for the rest of the crew... Well... All of them, even Amy-sempai, turned out to be quite tight-lipped about the incident. In the end, Harry hadn't learned much that could help him truly understand Testarossa-san from them.

**~/ *** \~**

Four days after the battle on that uninhabited desert planet the name of which Harry didn't even bother to memorize, the "Arthra"'s crew was re-joined by one more mage. A civilian collaborator originating from Mid-Childa, who had been researching the Book of Darkness in the Infinite Library within the Bureau headquarters until now.

Despite already being an accomplished adventuring archeologist and a researcher, this mage, Yuuno, was still just a boy no older than ten. He had green eyes and dark-blonde hair and was dressed in what could be best described as cream and green nomadic tunic with brown cloak thrown over it. Then again, he was a member of a well-known nomadic Scrya clan, which had produced many revered archeologists and historians...

Yuuno's arrival and the subsequent round of introductions, though, were probably the only highlight of the week. The guardian knights of the Book of Darkness had seemingly disappeared without a trace and not once were they caught sneaking anywhere to hunt for more Linker Cores. And while their lack of activity was probably a good thing as it certainly gave Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san the time they needed to recover and get ready for the next encounter, it was still worrisome.

In Harry's personal experience, such prolonged periods of calm often occurred before everything went to Hell. He, of course, really hoped that his gut feeling was wrong and nothing really bad would happen, but still... And, what was even worse, his uneasiness seemed to be shared by quite a few other mages aboard of "Arthra". And the fact that Christmas was coming didn't help either: for whatever reason, the bad things just so loved to happen during the holidays...

* * *

><p>"Captain!" Amy called as a good part of the sensors left by them on the planet surface suddenly went completely silent at about six in the evening on the Christmas eve. "There is a powerful communication jamming barrier deployed over the city!" There was a second-long pause, before she continued: "If my estimations are correct, it should be centered around the Uminari city hospital." That was certainly the worst possible location for the battle to take place, everyone thought.<p>

"Can you locate Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan?" Lindy asked then. "They said they wanted to visit their friend, some girl named Hayate Yagami, at the hospital this afternoon." There was longer pause as the communication systems aboard of "Arthra" tried to reach those two girls.

"No." Amy finally reported. "It appears that they are currently within that barrier." Captain Harlaown gritted her teeth. Either the Book's guardian knights were getting desperate and attacked a civilian hospital with both Nanoha and Fate getting caught in this on a mere coincidence... Or the knight were specifically after them, for whatever reason. Either way, the situation was very very bad.

"Chrono!" She called. "I want you to go down and assess the situation within the barrier. Assist Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan if necessary." The black-haired enforcer-in-training nodded.

"Alright." He said, acknowledging the order, as he turned on his heals and headed to the transportation chamber. However, before he could make more than a couple of steps, both Yuuno and Arf spoke up.

"We're coming too!" They both said, making it quite clear with their tone that they'll go even if Lindy told them not to. The teal-haired captain sighed, but decided to give them her permission... Once those three were off the "Arthra"'s bridge, she turned her attention to the young Potter.

"Harry, I want you to get ready for deployment." Captain Harlaown said. "I really hope that the five of them will be able to sort this situation out as they are, but..." She didn't say it out aloud, but there indeed was a chance that the things would get even worse than they were right now.

"Understood." Harry replied, also hoping the Fates will be gracious towards them and the today's problem would not escalate beyond what the usual combat mages of "Arthra" could handle.

* * *

><p>For everyone aboard of "Arthra" the next dozen or so minutes certainly felt like an eternity as they had absolutely no idea what was happening in the Uminari city, thanks to that communication jamming barrier. Then, without any warnings, this barrier disappeared. And, unfortunately, it was not because Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san were victorious – the observation sphere deployed by "Arthra" was showing that those two were trapped within some sort of a magical cage.<p>

The Book's guardian knights too were nowhere to be seen. Instead, standing atop of the hospital's roof there was a young woman in a black mini-dress with silver hair and three pairs of black feathery wings behind her back. The sensors aboard of "Arthra" could provide only a rough estimation of her magical power, but... it was so far off the scale that it was not even funny. It was also the perfect clue to this mysterious woman's identity: with that much raw power she could only be the Book of Darkness itself!

Understandably, the reactions of everyone aboard of "Arthra" could be surmised summarized as 'oh crap'! After all, they were just shown that all the hard work they did to prevent this planet-killer Lost Logia from reaching its completion and awakening was for naught. And now the said Lost Logia was about to begin wreaking destruction upon this world!

There was a second long pause, before the avatar of the Book of Darkness released a powerful wave of raw mana that shattered whatever magics that kept Nanoha and Fate trapped in that floating cage of theirs. The observation sphere relaying the image to "Arthra" was annihilated just a split second later... At least the rest of the warship's sensors weren't destroyed by that mighty burst of magical power. Which was why they were now going crazy as they were registering a spatial attack so powerful that it could probably blow the entire city up!

**~/ *** \~**

Standing on a roof of a random building a few miles away from the Uminari city hospital, there was a pair of identical blue-haired men in white-and-blue suits with white masks concealing their faces.

"I wonder, how long those two will last." One of those two men mused as a huge black sphere of destruction created by the Book of Darkness swallowed up a sizable part of the city. "I certainly hope, at least until _it_ starts going completely out of control." His twin merely nodded in response.

Suddenly, the masked pair noticed a faint icy-blue glow coming from under their feet. They didn't get a chance to even react properly, though, as a split second later numerous magical bindings burst into existence around them, tying them securely.

"**Struggle bind!**" Chrono Harlaown announced as floated into the pair's view. "Now, shall we see who you truly are?" The black-haired enforcer-in-training asked rhetorically as his spell began forcefully undoing any and all transformation magics that his two captives may have had on them. The pair's forms began wavering, and after a couple of seconds the 'men' were gone. In their places there now was a pair of twin cat-girls. "Aria? Lotte? What's going on?" Chrono asked – almost shouted – in surprise as he recognized them. Shaking his head, he decided that instead of interrogating them directly, he should get the answers directly from their master. Thus, he rang on Gil Graham up.

"Yes?" The aged man asked, his voice barely betraying the fact that he clearing wasn't expecting any calls at this time. Even if for whatever reason he was still in his office at the headquarters.

"Care to explain this, counter admiral?" The enforcer-in-training asked coldly as he turned around to show Graham his captured and unmasked familiars as well as the hard evidence of their ...rather questionable deeds.

"Don't you dare to speak to father like that!" Lotte spoke up agitatedly as she tried to struggle against the magical bindings that were tying her and her twin up. "He has nothing to do with this! This was all..." She didn't get to finish whatever she was going to say as her master interrupted her.

"That's quite enough, Lotte." Gil Graham said calmly. Or as calmly as someone who has just seen the years worth of their plans crumble to dust right in front of their eyes could. Turning his attention back to the dark-haired enforcer-in-training he continued: "You already know everything, right, Chrono?" He received an unsure nod in response. "I will be making no excuses, beyond saying that I was doing what I thought was the best way to end the cursed Book of Darkness forever."

"And this plan of yours requires the awakening of the Book?" Chrono asked in a little disbelief.

"Yes." Counter admiral Graham replied. "Normally, attacking either the Book or its master would cause it to disappear and regenerate elsewhere. However, when it takes over its master right after its awakening, and before its Defense program goes berserk, that regeneration won't be triggered. If the Book is frozen and sealed in the dimensional void during that time, it would not be returning."

"You already know that your plan is illegal." Chrono responded after a long pause. "But there is another problem with it. With the Book of Darkness still technically existing, there will always be those who will seek its release from its frozen prison. And, sooner or later, someone will succeed in that. When that happens, the Book will be unleashed upon the worlds once again."

"You are probably right." Gil Graham admitted finally. "However,.." He continued. "Now that is has been awakened, the Book of Darkness must be stopped, before it destroys this world. Whether you will go with my plan, or some other one, I still want you to take the staff of freezing, Durandal. It should be on Aria." The said cat-girl was about to protest, but a single glare from her master told her to be silent and let the enforcer-in-training take the device. "Also, Chrono, does anyone besides you know that the masked men were Aria and Lotte?"

"No." The dark-haired teen replied, which earned him a nod from counter admiral.

"Good." He said. "Then I want you to consider allowing them to assist you in the battle against the Book of Darkness. It is powerful beyond your imagination and having even a little extra help would not be a bad thing..." There was a moment-long pause, before Gil Graham continued. "And if you find yourself unable to just trust them after what I've had them do, have the safeguards to ensure that they will follow your orders placed on them." This time, the twins knew better to even question their master, though they certainly didn't look happy with this.

"I shall think about that." Chrono replied.

"Good." Counter admiral Graham said next. "As for me... I know that what I've done is illegal, and I know that I've lost. I wont' be running away, though. I will be in my office, so feel free to send your men to arrest me. My only request is that you won't let the Book of Darkness cause any unnecessary causalities." The enforcer-in-training nodded.

"I shall see to that, counter admiral." Upon hearing those words, Gil Graham saluted to him. Which was the last thing Chrono saw since the communication channel went dead immediately afterwards, broken by a powerful magical barrier that the Book of Darkness had erected over the city.

**~/ *** \~**

"Book of Darkness is deploying a barrier over the city." Amy, who was still monitoring the situation in the Uminari city, announced. There was a brief moment of static noise on the screens before the images returned. Another few seconds later, the analysis of this barrier was complete.

Apparently, this barrier was rather complex piece of magic, meant to entrap people within the area, while making it impossible for them to use any magical means of communication. And as a side effect, this barrier also partially phased everyone with awakened Linker Cores out of this plane reality, making the magical battles completely unnoticeable to those who had no magic in them. Though... Something wasn't quite adding up there.

"We are detecting four unexpected signatures within the barrier." Amy reported. "Two of those are about double-A rank in power and are right next to Chrono's location. As for the other pair... They are so weak that we can barely detect them, and they are all by themselves with our closest mage being over two miles away from them."

"Those two are likely civilians." Captain Harlaown mused aloud. It was entirely possible that those two remained noticed until now, thanks to the 'noise' created by normal non-magical humans. "Can you get me an image of them, Amy-chan?" Lindy asked then.

"Alright." The brunette replied as she ordered the deployment of another observation sphere over the city. It was a few seconds before the said sphere was up and running; and when it finally began relaying an image, it showed a pair of girls of about Nanoha's and Fate's age – one with reddish-blonde and one with purple hair – looking completely lost in the ghost-city within the barrier.

"Are those... Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan?" The teal-haired captain asked, surprised to see those two getting caught in this whole Book of Darkness mess like that.

"Seems so." Amy confirmed.

"Harry." Lindy said. "Here's finally the job for you. I want you to protect these two girls until the barrier is broken or the battle is over." Arf and Yuuno might be closer to that pair, but they already had a much more important task of supporting Nanoha and Fate in their battle against the Book's avatar.

"Of course." The young Potter replied. This sounded like a low risk job that even an inexperienced mage like him could do with little to no problems. Of course, there always was a chance of something going terribly wrong, but... "I'm departing." He announced as he left the bridge and headed to the "Arthra"'s transportation chamber.

* * *

><p>A strange oppressive feeling flowing through the yellow-tinted world within the barrier created by the Book of Darkness was what had greeted Harry as he teleported from "Arthra" to the Uminari city. Taking a second to get used to the change of scenery, the green-eyed teen asked his device to project a holographic display with the map of the city and the last known location of those two girls – Arisa and Suzuka? – he was supposed to be protecting.<p>

Well, it looked like he had landed about two blocks away from that location. Which was probably the best he could have hoped for: any closer and there was a chance of scaring the girls into doing something monumentally stupid with his sudden appearance; any farther, and it might take him too much time to reach them... Closing the map, Harry headed in the direction the girls were supposed to be in, while pushing his mana into his legs to increase his speed. Sure, flying would be even faster, but, once again, if he brought his glowing magical wings out, there was a good chance of him scaring those girls unnecessarily.

Quite surprisingly for the young Potter, Arisa and Suzuka turned out to be quite wing-footed for a pair of scared ten years old girls... Or maybe they were so quick _because_ they were scared? Anyhow, it took him some work to finally catch up with them. And it was a good thing that he reached them when he did as out of the corner of his eyes, he could see the Book of Darkness charging up some very powerful spell that looked like a huge pink ball of mana with 'stars' falling onto it...

"Look, Arisa-chan, there is someone!" Harry heard the purple-haired girl say to her friends as she finally noticed him. "Hey, mister, what's going on?" She asked the, addressing to him as he walked closer to them. Apparently, it was a wise decision of his not to manifest his barrier jacket: he definitely looked more authoritative in the Ground Forces uniform.

"Are you two alright?" He asked, ignoring their question for the moment, while also having his device do a basic scan of them to ensure that they were physically fine. The girls then nodded, confirming that they were indeed alright. "Good. I'm Administrative Bureau Ground Forces' private second class Harry Potter." He introduced himself "Now, let's get somewhere safer, before I can try explaining you the situation." He said, while glancing upwards where the Book of Darkness already finished charging her spell up and was now ready to fire it... And the three of them were within the targeted area.

"O-okay..." The blonde girl – Arisa – said hesitantly, all of the lessons about not going anywhere with strangers coming to the front of her mind. Yet, not following him wherever he was going to take them didn't look like a safer option, especially in this yellow-tinted and devoid of humans world.

"Then please stay close to me no matter what happens, until I tell you otherwise." Harry said, while silently using his device to make the calculations necessary for teleporting them to a different part of the city, the one that won't be blown up by whatever spell the Book of Darkness was about unleash. After all, while the barrier around the city prevented those inside of it from leaving, it couldn't stop one from teleporting within its boundary.

The green-eyed teen then began weaving his spell, causing a glowing eight-pointed star that was his magic circle appear underneath his feet. Understandably, this caused a mild freak-out in the two girls, but, remembering his words, they remained standing close to him...

That was when a familiar pair of girl mages flew into their view from behind a street corner.

"Nanoha-chan? Fate-chan?" Both Arisa and Suzuka asked in surprise, clearly having never seen their friends perform any magic before. "What's going on here?" Harry ignored those questions in favor of completing his spell, while Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san were too busy fleeing from the avatar of the Book of Darkness to stop and give some explanations... Not to mention that they themselves were clearly surprised to see Arisa and Suzuka there.

"**Dimensional transfer!**" The young Potter intoned as he completed and activated his spell.

* * *

><p>As the whitish light that had momentary filled their vision faded, the Arisa and Suzuka saw that they were now standing on a levee overseeing the bay the Uminari city was founded next to. And the city itself – or, at least its downtown – now was some distance away. Which, they would quickly agree, was a good thing as a few seconds later a thick pink energy beam tore through the downtown, immediately followed by an energy sphere of the same color swallowing a good quarter of the city...<p>

The girls just stared dumbly at the sight of a magical equivalent of a nuclear warhead going off within their home city. Harry himself was also deeply shocked by the amount of power the Book of Darkness had put into that attack, but at least he was aware of what was going on around him enough to throw a shield to protect all three of them from the oncoming shock wave: even here, a good few miles away from the ground zero, it still retained enough power to throw them off their feet.

As the magical explosion finally began to die down some ten seconds later, the green-eyed teen noticed something quite interesting: the city was still very much intact after whatever ridiculously-overpowered bombardment spell the Book of Darkness had used. And that was quite strange as that spell, had it been used in the 'indiscriminate damage' mode, definitely had enough power to completely atomize even the objects that had been partially displaced by the barrier.

Well,... Most likely this spell just didn't have such mode, Harry reasoned. After all, why would a planet-killer Lost Logia, whose only purpose was the destruction of whichever world it had been awakened on, hold back and use 'magic damage only' attacks? But... if it indeed was such a spell, why would the Book of Darkness use it at all? Surely, somewhere in the vast library of magical knowledge it had absorbed from its victims there was an equally-powerful piece of magic that could damage physical objects as well...

He was brought out of his musings by a very impatient ten years old girl.

"Aright, mister, explain what is going on!" The blonde, Arisa, demanded with her arms akimbo. Harry sighed: he knew that he definitely was far from the best person to give someone an introduction to magic. Yet, with how pushy his two charges were, there was no way he could postpone this any further. And with the barrier they all were still trapped in, he couldn't even ask captain Harlaown for some help.

"Well..." The young Potter began awkwardly. "Given the tonight's events, I guess, you won't have much trouble believing that magic does, in fact, exist."

"Let's pretend we believe you." Arisa said, her tone practically dripping with distrust. Apparently, even even seeing the magical battle going on in the city right now was not enough to completely shatter her disbelief towards the existence of supernatural. "Are you a wizard then? Like the one from fairy tails? And what about Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan?"

"A mage, actually." Harry corrected her. "'And Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san are mages as well. However, our magic is quite different from what you might have read about in the fantasy books. It is more of a science than anything else, follows rather strict rules and generally deals with energy-type conversions while still conforming to the second law of thermodynamics."

"O-o-o-okay..." The blond girl said. "So, what's the deal with that light show?" She asked, while nodding towards the still ongoing battle within the city.

"And how come there is no one around? Where did everyone disappear to?" Her purple-haired friend, Suzuka, added a question of her own.

"Well..." Harry began. "You see... There was an ancient, very powerful and very dangerous artifact within the city. We, as in an organization of mages, were doing our best to prevent it from awakening. But, due to an outside interference, we've failed in that. So, right now, we are doing our best to contain and stop this rampaging artifact before it does too much damage." He explained. "As for where all the people within the city have disappeared to? They are technically still there, just phased onto a different layer of reality by the magical barrier around the city, so that neither we can see them, nor they can see us. When the barrier goes down, the layers of reality will merge back together and the people will reappear." There was a long pause, before Arisa asked a very logical question:

"If you and Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan are mages and are here, does it mean that we are mages too?"

"You certainly have active Linker Cores – that is a metaphysical organ that generates and stores mana, thus enabling one to cast spells – as otherwise you wouldn't be here right now. Yet... According to our scans, neither of you possess any significant amounts of magical power."

"Oh drat!" Arisa swore. Learning that you have something as incredible as magic yet don't have enough power to use it in any way must have been hard on her. Her more level-headed friend, Suzuka, also appeared to be quite upset about this, even if she didn't voice it out.

Looking away from the two girls he was protecting for a moment, the young Potter saw that in the last few minutes the battle against the Book of Darkness had moved away from the Uminari city downtown and into the nearby bay. Thankfully, it was still a fair distance away from their current location...

And then, there was a big explosion of pink energy in skies. Quite surprisingly, though, this explosion was followed by the magical barrier around the city collapsing. Did someone actually manage to land a hit on the berserk planet-killer Lost Logia? Whatever had happened out there, the battle seemed to stop after that explosion. Even if the Book of Darkness was still active and as powerful as ever, according to the information his device was feeding to him.

At this point, two new fighters entered the stage, though Harry himself couldn't see them at such a distance, even if his eyesight had been repaired during his time on the Mid-Childa. What he could see, though, were the multiple green and orange binding spells that were used to root the Book of Darkness to a single spot. And there also was as a powerful bombardment spell – once again, pink in color – being charged up.

Then, the was fired, creating another, even bigger, explosion of pink light. Which also coincided with a beam of yellow shooting upwards to the skies. Another moment later, something uncomfortably-close to an earthquake began, while a cocoon of purplish-black energies appeared where the Book of Darkness used to be. Though... Before it could finish forming, a ball of white light broke away from it, carrying a noticeable portion of the berserk planet-killer's powers with it.

This ball of light then exploded into a pillar reaching towards the skies as four powerful presences entered the battlefield, manifesting themselves around it. After that, the light show finally died down, leaving only the cocoon of darkness stranded in the middle of the bay. Plus, since the battle wasn't resuming, it was a reasonable assumption that whoever those new warriors were, they were allies. At least for now...

"It seems that might end up victorious after all..." Harry commented.

"What do you mean?" Arisa asked immediately.

"When I said that the artifact we are trying to stop is powerful, I might have lied a little bit." The dark-haired teen confessed. Ignoring the girls' questions of what did he mean by that, he continued. "It is much more than just powerful. This artifact is... It is classified as a planet-killer, and for a reason. It has destroyed entire worlds before." He said finally. "But don't worry: this time, we will defeat it!" He gave his countenance, even if he didn't entirely believe in that himself. Still, it did its job as it calmed the girls down somewhat... Suddenly, his device informed him about an incoming call. Sending it a mental command to accept, Harry had a holographic display, relaying an image from the "Arthra"'s bridge pop up in front of him. "Captain Harlaown!" He greeted with a salute.

"Lindy-san?" The two girls next to him asked in great surprise. Apparently, they knew the teal-haired captain from somewhere, but had no idea just who she really was.

"Oh, Arisa-chan, Suzuka-chan, are you two alright?" Not really waiting for them to give an answer, Lindy continued, this time addressing to the young Potter instead: "Good job protecting them, Harry."

"Thank you, ma'am!" He replied.

"Now then... I have a request. Not an order, just a request." This certainly sounded interesting. So, the green-eyed teen silently told his captain that he was listening. "Even if we've gained some unexpected allies for our final stand against the berserk Defense Program of the Tome of the Night Sky, I fear that we might still need more power to win tonight." Here, captain Harlaown made a small pause. "Which is why, Harry, I'm asking you to give them a hand. Your unique magic might just be exactly what we need to finally stop the curse of the Book of Darkness forever." Closing his eyes, the young Potter thought about it. Finally, after a few seconds, he made his decision:

"I shall do that, captain." He said.

"Thank you, Harry." Lindy replied, while giving him a small salute. "I shall inform everyone about your decision." The black-haired teen gave her a nod, before ending the call.

"Now, Arisa-san, Suzuka-san." He said to the two girls next to him. "I have to go now." Taking a step forward, he intoned: "**Phoenix claw, set up!**" As his device took its active form of a silvery clawed gauntlet, his brown Ground Forces' uniform disappeared, replaced by his barrier jacket. Another second later, the young Potter was surrounded by a thin cloak of magical energy, while two pairs of bird-like wings appeared behind his back. "Stay safe and don't worry: we will definitely win tonight!" And with those words he took off...

* * *

><p>By the time Harry arrived there, the rest of the party was long assembled. And what a party it was... First and foremost, there were Nanoha Takamachi, whose device now looked like a golden spear with three pairs of pink wings on it; Fate Testarossa wielding what appeared to be a zweihander with its thick blade composed entirely of golden mana; and Chrono Harlaown with some very special and very powerful staff in his hands.<p>

Supporting them, there were Yuuno Scrya; Testarossa-san's familiar Arf; and, finally, the twin familiars of counter admiral Graham, Liesearia and Lieselotte. Though, truth to be said, Harry had absolutely no idea what the two cat-girls were doing there or why they looked so unhappy about being there...

The final five members of the party were the four guardian knights of the Tome of the Night Sky – one of which was actually healing Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san – and their current mistress, one Hayate Yagami. Though, for whatever reason, the girl's hair was platinum-blonde instead of brown, and her eyes were too azure for that to be a natural color.

"Uhm..." The young Potter began. There was a pretty long pause then as he wasn't sure just what he should say next. In the end, he decided to go with the following question: "What's the plan for the battle?" Chrono the enforcer-in-training was the one to give Harry the answer:

"Once the berserk Defense Program breaks out of the stasis, we will need to destroy the four defensive barriers it guards itself with." The staff-wielding teen said. "Once that is done, our next task is stripping it down to its core by continuously delivering large amounts of damage upon it. Finally, when we have the core, it will be teleported into outer space and hit with Arc-en-Ciel. If everything goes well, that should be enough to stop the current incarnation of the corrupted Defense Program and give us enough time to undertake measures necessary to prevent its return."

"Understood." The young Potter relied with a nod. The rest of the party nodded as well, even if they all knew this plan already.

Suddenly, a new voice entered the conversation:

"_With the permission of my mistress, I shall be taking over until the end of the battle._" The four Guardian Knights seemed to recognize that voice and so did Takamachi-san and Testarossa-san. The rest of the party, though, were just as clueless about the identity of the speaker as Harry himself was...

Once this new speaker finished, Hayate's form was engulfed be the soothing white light. And when this light faded, in her place there stood a red-eyed silver-haired young woman that looked a lot like the avatar of the Book of Darkness, just without the red markings on her skin. Yet, despite looking quite similar, it was easy to tell that this woman was not like that monster: the aura she was projecting was of lingering sadness, remorse and happiness – not the emotions a mindless berserk could ever feel.

Finally, this silver-haired beauty spoke:

"Please, call me by the name mistress Hayate has bestowed upon me: Reinforce!"

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!

**Now**, here is a question to you, my readers: **what should happen to the Liese twins**? Do they both live through the battle intact? Does one of the die? Or both of them do? Or they survive but, say, lose limbs? Since no matter which option is gets written into the chapter, it will have little impact on the rest of the story, feel free to express your ideas on the matter. I might just listen to one of them.


	12. Clear Skies

The twelfth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>Impstar<strong>, **SonicAnime2010**, I answered your review via PM.  
><strong>Jose19<strong>, please remember that mage's rank is not equal to their combat ability, and with Harry's magic being so good at ignoring magical defenses,.. An A-ranked spell of his has the same destructive potential as a conventional S-ranked one. At least when in comes to anti-personnel fight - Harry still lacks powerful area-of-effect spells.  
><strong>Takeshi Yamato<strong>, **Ranmaleopard**, **MWkillkenny84**, **voidzzz**, yes, Reinforce will survive in my story. I have some big plans for her, after all...  
><strong>celf<strong>, **Key to Chaos**, after some thinking, I've decided on what will happen to Hedwig. Harry will indeed research the familiar creation rituals, but... Let's say, Hedwig still won't become a proper familiar. But she wont stay just an owl forever either.  
><strong>ultima-owner<strong>, **Penny is wise**, **catsfissh**, **FateBurn**, **raynisia**, **dorfdel**, **Reader12345678910**, **serialkeller**, **karthik9**, **voidzzz**, **Shadowsmage**, **Reishin Amara**, **Opinr**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>Megami-tan<strong>, thanks for catching that mistake of mine - Fate is indeed AAA-ranked mage by the time A's events start. 

*** AN**: Chapter XII or the 'befriending' of NachtWal. I was not sure how to end this chapter, so I cut it short as the point where it felt least awkward. Unfortunately, this made the chapter into one big fight - second half of which is actually a lot like what had happened in canon. And based on the results of the small voting I had initiated in the previous chapter, the Liese Twins survive the fight intact.

Also, a fun fact: the first '**Heimdall**' used by Reinforce in this chapter delivers a hit with the total kinetic energy of about 30TJ - it's equivalent to the yield of a 7.5 kiloton nuke!

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>Special thanks<strong>_ to **Lupine Horror** for his help in polishing the idea and the chapters.

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<strong>  
><strong>chapter XII: Clear Skies<strong>

The next minute dragged on and on forever as everyone waited for the berserk Defense Program to break out of its cocoon of darkness and reveal itself to the world. Then, after what certainly felt like an eternity, it finally began. One by one, pillars of darkness began rising around the cocoon. And once all nine of them had manifested, the cocoon rose into the air, while the pillars wrapped around it like ferrules. This was followed by the whole cocoon going completely pitch-black. And another second later, it exploded outwards with a mighty shock-wave, finally revealing the bizarre monster that the berserk Defense Program turned into.

It had an overall shape of a whale-sized bug with massive clawed legs covered in plates of spiked pseudo-metallic armor. The 'head' of this beast, however, was nothing more than a pair of massive jaws, surrounded by a mane of black fur and a crown of curved horns of different sizes and colors. Protruding upwards from where the neck joint was supposed to be, there was a naked humanoid-like torso with purplish-pink skin covered with many deep-red markings... The back of this beast was covered in sharp and deadly spikes, each as long as a ten feet, with clusters of thin tentacles and three pairs of black feathery wings sticking out of the carapace at seemingly random points... And to complete the image, it was surrounded by thick dark-purple mist of raw mana with four semi-transparent barriers forming a multi-layered dome around it.

All in all, the berserk Defense Program looked like a monster straight out of some psychic-ward patient's nightmare. And the odd resounding wails it made certainly fit with its alien looks. However, before anyone could even ask what the hell this thing was, it began preparing its attack. And it wasn't just a single spell either. No, it was charging up no less than a dozen overpowered to the extremes bombardment spells simultaneously, while also summoning hundreds upon hundreds of lesser magical bullets at the same time.

"Watch out!" Someone – Harry wasn't sure who – shouted, breaking the rest of the party out of the stupor... Unfortunately for the green-eyed teen, his only chance to survive this storm of projectiles was dodging it entirely. Which he did by dropping towards the waters of the bay as fast as the gravity could carry him and returning to just floating in the air only when the multi-colored barrage of magical missiles flew over his head.

"_You can't defend yourself against those?_" Chrono, who, apparently, paid enough attention to everything going on around him to notice Harry's maneuver, asked him telepathically.

"_Yes, my shield works well only against physical attacks. The rest will go right through it._" The young Potter responded, while rising back to the same altitude the rest of the party was on. The enforcer-in-training nodded, before issuing his order:

"_Aria, guard him._" The longer-haired cat-girl merely nodded, before practically teleporting in front of Harry, while raising the strongest shield she could produce. Thankfully, this shield was good enough to withstand the next barrage of magical bullets the berserk Defense Program had sent their way.

"Dammit, just how powerful is this thing?" Arf complained loud enough for everyone to hear her as the said mass of corruption began charging up another round of bombardment spells.

"_When my master and I separated ourselves from it, I was able to take only about thirteen percents of its power for myself._" Reinforce responded telepathically.

"_So,.. It is seven times more powerful than you?_" Chrono asked with some disbelief in his 'voice'. After all, Reinforce already possessed several times more raw power than the rest of the party combined.

"_Yes. However, it lacks intelligence, especially with the corruption that now controls its actions, so it is unable to utilize that power effectively._" The silver-haired avatar of the Lost Logia replied. "_However, even without intelligence, it is not to be underestimated. By shooting at everything it has within its attack range all the time, it does prevent us from counterattacking quite well._"

"_My shooting spells don't require a direct line of sight._" Harry supplied. "_So if Aria-san can keep her shield up, I can try probing the barriers surrounding the Defense Program._" The cat-girl floating in front of him nodded as she reinforced her shielding spell as much as she could. "**Solar Flare!**" The young Potter intoned as half a dozen football-sized magical projectiles began manifesting around him... Thankfully, the berserk Defense Program didn't consider him to be enough of a threat to fire any spells that Aria's shield couldn't tank his way until the agonizingly long second it took his spell to charge up was over. "Shoot!"

Six whitish meteors immediately darted towards the corrupted monstrosity, each following a separate and random trajectory to minimize the chance of being shot down or otherwise destroyed before they could even reach the outer barrier. And indeed, they all made it there. And managed to pierce not just the outer barrier, but two more underneath it, before they were finally stopped by the fourth layer.

"_That wasn't half bad._" Reinforce commented. Each of those barriers were powerful enough to easily stop Nanoha's best Starlight Breaker. "_Anything you can tell us about those barriers?_" After all, any little bit of information that could help them getting past those defenses might end up as what would eventually grant them the victory tonight.

"_The outer two layers are anti-magic barriers._" Harry replied. "_The third layer is meant to protect it first and foremost against physical attacks, and the inner-most layer is another anti-magic barrier. The mana mist around the Defense Program will also act as another layer of anti-magic defense. And, unlike the four barriers, it can't be dispelled as long as the program itself exists._" What went unsaid was the fact that thick hide of that monstrous beast likely could tank quite some damage too...

"Alright!" The silver-haired beauty replied. Verbally. "Signum, Vita, guard me!" The said two knights immediately appeared in front of their mistress, ready to protect her as she went about preparing some powerful attack... Once Reinforce was sure that she could drop her own defenses, she began chanting: "Tridents of Poseidon, gather from the sea! Sighs of the silver snow, come from yonder! Mauls of silver, form spear of frost that pierce your enemies!.." And as she chanted, the red-eyed beauty kept raising her hands towards the skies. Following her movements, the sea water was drawn upwards, where it froze into a dozen of stake-shaped icebergs, each the size of a giant skyscraper.

The Defense Program, of course, tried to destroy those icebergs, but it couldn't do anything as any damage it inflicted upon those masses of ice was repaired within a heartbeat.

"_W-W-What are you doing?_" Chrono asked fearfully. If that much of ice was suddenly dropped back into the bay, it could very well create a tidal wave capable of seriously damaging the Uminari city.

"_Don't worry._" Was all the response he got as Reinforce continued preparing her attack. "**Heimdall: Phalanx Shift!**" She finally announced a couple of seconds later as all twelve icebergs were thrown towards the Defense Program at the speed of a hundred meters per second... What had happened next was impossible to describe with words as the colossal forces clashed against each other. In the end, with a deafening sound of broken glass the outer barrier was destroyed, while all of the icebergs turned into fine ice dust.

The party, however, had no time to gawk at the display of the power in front of them: the berserk beast was far from happy with their little success at breaching the outer layer of its defenses moment ago and was now preparing a massive counterattack. So massive that the hundreds of spells it was charging up produced a nearly blinding light all by themselves.

That was probably the reason why both Aria and Harry were a little too slow to react when a thick golden beam of a bombardment spell headed their way... And while the girl in front of him was still able to avoid it completely, the young Potter himself wasn't as lucky and got his left 'wing' clipped. Which, due to the mechanics of his flight spell, sent him spiraling downwards. And without Aria's shield to protect him from lesser incoming attacks, even those two seconds it took him to re-manifest his wings were enough for a magical bullet to burn away a chunk his flesh at his right hip.

The searing pain from that wound was enough to completely break his concentration and Harry was once again falling towards the cold waters of the Uminari bay. Only to never reach them as a dark-green portal manifested itself in his path. Falling through this portal brought him more or less into the hands of the blonde knight... Shamal was her name?

"Let me heal you." She said, while already running a diagnostic spell to know the extent of his injury. "You were quite lucky." She concluded. "Even if it must hurt like hell, the wound is mostly superficial. I should be able to patch you up in a couple of minutes. It will still leave a scar and you are likely to be walking stiff for a couple of days, but..." Harry nodded.

"Thank you." He said as he felt the soothing magic of the blond knight already easing his pain.

"Watch out!" Someone shouted suddenly, alerting the two of them about a whitish bombardment spell heading their way. And given how medical spells couldn't be interrupted mid-cast without something bad happening to the patient, the two of them just couldn't evade this one...

The white beam collided with the shields hastily conjured by the Liese twins, tearing through those like they were but a wet paper. The shield created by the wolf-like guardian knight didn't fare much better, and neither did the crystal-like shell the not-familiar had surrounded himself with as he placed himself in the beam's path – everything on the right side of his body was essentially vaporized...

"Zafira!" The rest of the knights, as well as Fate and Nanoha cried out. Reinforce too gritted her teeth, though, she didn't look as scared for the wolf-like man as the others.

Meanwhile, the white beam of destruction kept advancing. It broke through Arf's shield and then ran into the one created by Yuuno. But unlike the others, the blond boy didn't place his shield perpendicular to the bombardment spell's path, thus redirecting it away from Harry and Shamal.

"**Under the administrative powers of the Tome of the Night Sky... Guardian knights, unit Zafira: reload!**" The silver-haired avatar of the Tome commanded in deep concentration. A moment later bright white light formed around the wounded knight. And when this light faded away several seconds later, the wolf-like man was completely healed.

"I thank you, my mistress." He said with a bow, while deploying a shield to protect himself from incoming barrage of the magical bullets. Reinforce just nodded in response, while telling him something telepathically that no one else could hear. Judging by the slight blush appearing on the large man's face, he was likely chastised for that rushed and quite stupid stunt of his...

No sooner had they dealt with their current problem, a new one presented itself: the berserk Defense Program, apparently, could restore its defensive barriers. And taking into account just how hard breaking one of those had been... It was a huge problem. Doubly so since it took that monster only a minute to do that.

"Grrr..." Arf growled, expressing what everyone felt about this situation quite well.

"_Alright... What do we do now?_" The enforcer-in-training asked, while looking at Reinforce. "_Will you be able to break those barriers again?_" The silver-haired beauty kind-of nodded.

"_I have enough mana to pull six or seven more attacks on the scale of Heimdall. After that, though..._" She made short pause, before adding: "_And as powerful as it is, it is far from the best spell in these new conditions: the full casting cycle for it is forty seconds long._" In other words, they won't be able to get past the third layer of barriers that way. Ever.

"_If we can take down the two outer anti-magic barriers, my shooters should be able to reach the main body of the Defense Program._" Harry said. "_Also, can't we use other cannons inboard of "Arthra"?_"

"_That's actually an idea. However, if she gets too close, she will be destroyed. Her shields can take only so much punishment, and the Defense Program will certainly mark a warship as the highest-priority target._" Chrono replied. Reinforce was the one to ease everyone's minds, however:

"_If your warship remains at the altitude of thirty or more miles, it should be relatively safe. The spell with the greatest effective range the Defense Program has access to can reliably strike targets only at twenty miles._" Nodding, the enforcer-in-training initiated a call so that he could explain the "Arthra"'s crew the new plan... This conversation lasted from maybe a minute. "_Alright. "Arthra" will be in position in a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, we should back away from the Defense Program down there a little bit as even the standard cannons of the Bureau warships have large impact zones._" Receiving a round of acknowledgments from the rest of the party, he continued: "_Now then,.. What should we be doing next?_" While he was technically the highest-ranked officer on the field, Chrono felt that it was Reinforce, who should be giving the orders right now: not only she was by far the strongest of them all, she was also the most knowledgeable about their opponent.

"_Hm... Let me see..._" The said silver-haired beauty replied thoughtfully. "_Our task is to destroy the outer barrier layers as quickly as possible..._" There was a short pause, during which she finally formed the plan: "_Shamal, I want you to take the tome and prepare the Hakai no Ikazuchi, use it once the warship saturates the outer barrier enough._" The blond knight nodded as she summoned the Tome of the Night Sky from her mistress' hands and into her own. "_Zafira, you will be guarding her._"

"_Understood, mistress._" The wolf-like man replied as he swiftly moved to the knight of the lake's side. Meanwhile, Reinforce continued:

"_Nanoha, I want you to charge the most powerful Starlight Breaker you can control. And try hitting the same spot Shamal does._" The brown-haired girl nodded as she got into stance. Fate and Chrono moved in front of her to shield her from whatever the corrupted Defense Program might try throwing her way. "_I will prepare another Heimdall meanwhile._" The silver-haired woman continued. "_Signum and Vita, you will be guarding me._" Receiving the nods of acknowledgment from those two knights of hers, Reinforce turned her attention to Harry: "_If everything works well, we should give you about fifty five seconds to do as much damage to the Defense Program as possible._"

"_Understood. I won't let you down._" The young Potter replied. Nodding, the red-eyed beauty turned her eyes upwards, where "Arthra" had just teleported into the Earth's atmosphere and now was getting ready to rain destruction upon the unholy beast that the berserk Defense Program was.

"_Alright, everyone, get ready!_" Reinforce called.

**~/ *** \~**

The battle in middle of the Uminari bay dragged on and on for the last fifteen or so minutes and yet it didn't look like the heroes, despite some truly massive attacks being thrown around like candies on Halloween, had made any progress in putting that unnatural beast down. Thus, rather understandably, uneasiness was creeping upon Arisa and Suzuka, who watched that battle from a safe distance.

"M-Maybe we should r-run for the hills?" The purple-haired girl asked when that super-massive attack by the flying icebergs didn't work and the bizarre monster the heroes were fighting did a number on them instead. "Ouch!" She immediately cried out as her friend smacked her on the back of her head.

"They will win." Arisa stated in a tone that said that no objections will be accepted. "Nanoha-chan and Fate-chan will win!" The blonde repeated. "_He_ said so."

"B-But..." Suzuka tired to protest, only to shut up as she saw the party move some distance away from the monstrosity they had been fighting, before initiating the preparations for the next round of their next attack. "Yes." She finally agreed as white meteors began raining upon the beast from something unseen floating high in the skies. "They are going to win."

**~/ *** \~**

"_Everyone, get ready!_" Reinforce ordered as the white meteor-like projectiles began raining upon the berserk Defense Program from the skies. And not even waiting for the round of acknowledgments from the rest of the party, she began preparing her Heimdall spell. Since the beast already knew just how powerful a hit those floating icebergs could deliver, it, of course, concentrated all of its considerable power on destroying them. Thankfully, the limitless supply of water meant that Reinforce could regenerate those icebergs for as long as she mana – which she still had quite a lot... Finally, after what felt like an eternity, even if it was less than a minute in reality, her Heimdall reached its 'critical mass'. And with that, it was the time to enact their plan! "_Go!_" The silver-haired beauty ordered.

"**Hakai no Ikazuchi!**" Shamal intoned, using the Tome of the Night Sky to cast the spell that was normally outside of her abilities. A moment later, an orb of purple light appeared in the stormy skies above the berserk Defense Program. "Shoot!" The blond knight commanded as a think bolt of purple lightning descended towards the unholy beast like the fury of Heavens...

"**Starlight Breaker!**" Nanoha called at the same time, turning the forty-something yards big ball of mana she had collected into the biggest and most powerful beam of destruction she had ever created. And since the Defense Program's outer barrier was already saturated by the "Arthra"'s cannon fire, the two overpowered spells hitting more or less the same spot somehow managed to destroy it completely. Which was the cue for Reinforce to launch her own attack:

"**Heimdall: Phalanx Shift!**" The next second half a million tons of ice were slammed into the second barrier at one third of the speed of sound. It was hard to hear the sound of the barrier shattering in the thunderous boom of all that ice being crushed into fine dust, but it was still there. It was also the signal for Harry to start his own bombardment of the Defense Program...

"**Solar Flare!**" The young Potter called out, sending his white meteor-like projectiles towards the berserk beast in front of him by dozens. Of course, the remaining two barriers and the mist of raw mana that still surrounded his target weakened those originally-highly-destructive spells considerably. And while those weakened projectiles couldn't do much individually, the sheer number of them began tearing the humanoid torso on top of the Defense Program's monstrous body apart, piece by piece. Its deafening wail of pain was a proof of that...

However, even if Harry was now doing some real damage to the Defense Program, he wasn't doing it fast enough to actually manage something within the window of opportunity the earlier massive attack had provided him with. Not to mention that the ridiculous healing factor that thing possessed would heal any and all wounds it might sustain within seconds, should the assault on it cease even for a few moments... And the others in the party could see that too.

"_Alright!_" Reinforce called. "_Keep attacking, everyone! Let's try taking down the remaining barriers!_" Her command was followed by the round of acknowledgments. Then she began chanting: "Come forth, the wind of snow, and become the fletching which falls from the heavens. **Hræsvelgr**!" Once a big Belkan triangle appeared in front of her, she began firing thick white beams of magic from it. And these beams, once they came in contact with barriers around the Defense Program, blew up into great explosions of frost. A few seconds later, Nanoha fired her Starlight Breaker. And together with the bombardment provided by "Arthra"'s cannons, these attacks managed to shatter the third barrier.

"**Hakai no Ikazuchi!**" Shamal called out again while Fate unleashed a bombardment spell of her own that looked like thick golden beam surrounded by purple lightnings. Alas, this last barrier turned out to be tough enough to withstand that and the combined barrages from Reinforce and "Arthra"'s cannons for those few seconds it took the outer barrier layers to finish restoring itself.

But before anyone could start cursing at how their plan had once again failed, one of the last magical bullets that Harry had managed to get within the Defense Program's barriers succeeded in hitting one of that monster's vitals, causing it to let out another ear-piercing wail of pain as its magical defenses finally collapsed.

"Finally!" Arf exclaimed, expressing everyone's relief and happiness at finally bringing the defenses of that cursed monster down... With this, their victory tonight no longer appeared to be something unachievable: just a little bit more, and they will finally be able to put this berserk down!

"_Alright, everyone!_" Reinforce called, reminding the party that the battle was still far from over. "_We now need to keep the Defense Program restrained and under constant attacks to keep its regeneration from repairing the damage we've already caused and form bringing the barriers back online._" She said. And as everyone nodded in agreement with her proposed course of action, Chrono was actually the only one to ask a question:

"_Do we still need "Arthra" there for support?_" He inquired.

"_No. We should be fine by ourselves now... _**Mistilteinn!**" The silver-haired beauty replied, before firing seven spears of light towards the rapidly-recovering beast, making the parts of it struck by her spell turn into very real stone.

"_Alright then._" The enforcer-in-training replied. "_I shall tell them that they can return to the orbit now and start the preparations for the Arc-en-Ciel fire._" After all, the said cannon took quite some time to charge up, and it needed to be at ready for the last part of their plan to forever stop the berserk Defense Program to work. Receiving a nod from Reinforce, he then opened a communication channel to "Arthra"'s bridge so that he could pass this information to them. But, of course, before that, Chrono fired a powerful freezing spell of his own at the Defense Program, who was breaking free off its petrification already – that damn mana mist was canceling even S-ranked spells within seconds!

And he was also very glad that the Liese twins had followed the orders he had given them before the battle began so far and didn't display any of the abilities they showcased as the masked men. Losing the trust of the four knights and their mistress right there in the middle of a battle was the very last thing he and everyone in know about their involvement in the events of the past month wanted...

* * *

><p>The next few minutes were spent in a rather routine way: Reinforce and Chrono kept throwing powerful freezing and petrification spells at the Defense Program while the rest of the part – sans Aria and Lotte who kept shielding everyone from the rare counterattack the berserk monstrosity did manage; and Shamal, who had been searching for its core – were doing their best to inflict as much injury upon it as they could... Which was far from easy as the cursed mist or raw mana greatly reduced the power of any spell that entered it, and the Defense Program itself had an incredible healing factor, which seemed to only get stronger, the more damaged that thing took.<p>

"_I... I found the core!_" Shamal called as large ball of darkness could be seen through one of the four portals she had been using as the tool in her search. "_However, I don't think I can pull it out just yet._" The blond knight added after a few seconds.

"_Understood._" Reinforce replied. "_Everyone, hear that? Just a little bit more, and the day is saved!_"

"_Arf and I shall switch to getting the transportation matrix ready._" Yuuno, who until now had been using his chains as magical whips to tear the monstrous body of the Defense Program apart, said. Next to him the orange-haired wolf-girl nodded as the two of them began working on the forced teleportation spell meant to send the dark core of berserk into outer space and right into the "Arthra"'s Arc-en-Ciel...

"Let's do it, Fate-chan!" Nanoha called. Her blond partner nodded in response and the two of them floated to each others side for what apparently was a combination attack. Meanwhile, Reinforce began preparing a bombardment spell of her own:

"Resound, the horn of the end, **Ragnarök!**" Instantly, a Belkan triangle manifested itself in front of her, before three beams of white energy, surrounded by black lightnings, burst from it towards the Defense Program. And just a moment later, Nanoha and Fate fired their own spell, **Blast Calamity**, which was a powerful burst of raw mana, followed by what looked like a Divine Buster coupled with a Plasma Smasher.

These attacks finally reduced the already beaten up and wounded berserk monstrosity to just a shapeless bloody mess, which was desperately trying to regenerate the massive damage it had sustained... That, however, would never happen as Shamal was finally able to separate the corrupted black core of the Defense Program from its body.

"_I have it._" The blond knight announced. A moment later, she added hastily and with notes of fear in her voice: "_Hurry up, I can't hold it for long!_"

"**Long Distance Transfer!**" Yuuno called as he and Arf activated the transportation matrix. For a second or two nothing seemed to happen. Then, a multi-colored ball of light appeared in the waters of the bay among the floating remains of the Defense Program's body. Another moment later, this ball collapsed upon itself, just as a beam of white light shot upwards, towards the clear skies of the Christmas night.

A few seconds later, everyone was treated to the sight of truly massive explosion that was happening somewhere on the Earth's orbit. It looked like a bright flash that shone brighter than the Sun for a brief moment, with the concentric ring of light expanding outwards from it for hundreds of miles.

"I wonder, how they are going to cover it up?" Harry asked no one in particular. "I mean, this explosion could have been seen from anywhere this side of the planet..." Apparently, someone had heard his monologue, though.

"Oh, shut up, who cares about that!" The miniature knight of the hammer 'replied'. "We have won!"

"_The sensors aboard "Arthra" confirm the total destruction of the target._" Chrono reported, passing the information from "Arthra"'s bridge. His declaration was met by a moment of silence, followed by an explosion of cheers as everyone was just so happy that this battle, this nightmare was over.

"_Now,.._" Reinforce said suddenly, drawing the attention to herself. "_I believe, I've promised to return master Hayate to you once this is over. So, if you excuse me..._" With those words said, her form began glowing as it shrank and reformed into that of Hayate Yagami. The one that had those platinum-blonde hair and unnaturally-azure eyes... The girl looked around rather dumbly for a few moments as she got reacquainted with the reality.

"I take it, we won?" She asked. And once she received the positive answer, she murmured under her breath: "Unison out." There was a small flash of light as her staff and her knight's clothes disappeared while her eyes and hair returned to their normal colors. At the same time, Reinforce manifested herself by her mistress' side, quickly catching the girl before she could fall into the waters of the bay – after all, no one had taught Hayate-chan to fly...

"I sincerely hope, I don't have to fight a monster like that ever again." Chrono said then in an uncharacteristically-emotional voice. His strong feelings were quite understandable, though. After all, he had just fought against the being capable of wiping the life off entire planets... Not to mention that the previous incarnation of it had cost him his father.

"I will do everything in my powers to prevent the corrupted Defense Program from being reincarnated." The silver-haired beauty replied, causing her mistress to look at her questioningly. "Don't worry, my master, we will definitely see each other again." She said with a small, gentle smile as she handed Hayate over to ever-loyal Signum. "But right now, I have to go and make sure than the tragedies that gave me that dark name will never happen again."

"P-Promise that you will be back?" The young Queen of the Night Sky asked almost tearfully.

"Of course I will be." Reinforce replied, tilting her head to the side quite cutely. "After all, my loving master asked me to."

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	13. In the Aftermath of the victory

The thirteenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>SonicAnime2010<strong>, I've answered your review via PM.  
><strong>FateBurn<strong>, **Impstar**, **Reader12345678910**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **Ranmaleopard**, **ultima-owner**, **Opinr**, **karthik9**, **serialkeller**, **Penny is wise**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>celf<strong>, a partner and a teammate you say?.. Hm... Actually, Fate might become his teammate (again) in the not-so-distant future.  
><strong>voidzzz<strong>, alas for you, I actually do plan on them eventually becoming more than just friends. But before that happens, Reinforce will indeed spend a lot of time as Harry's mentor and cohabitant. Their romance won't start soon. Or even soonTM. I'd say, it will be at least a full arc (probably with a small timeskip) before anything going beyond just friendship happens between them.  
><strong>MWkillkenny84<strong>, why do that when Starlight Breaker solves everything? Well, Ragnarok in their case.  
><strong>Jose19<strong>, S rank - among other things - requires one's Linker Core to have a mana throughput at a certain level. Which Harry doesn't have naturally. His Lost Logia only replenishes his mana reserves, it doesn't affect how much he can spend within a given time. However, a few arcs down the storyline, he will gain a way to temporarily ascend into S-rank.  
><strong>DestinyVain<strong>, ... The point? If you stop to actually analyze what happened during the battle, you'd notice that without Harry they'd have been forced to sacrifice Japan. Either to Arc-en-Ciel or to NachtWal (if they decide to wait for reinforcements): as overpowered as the rest of that party was, their 'conventional' magic was still not strong enough to breach all of the NachtWal's barriers, even with a battleship assisting them. Thus, even if he was less impressive than some of the others, Harry was the one who made the victory possible. As for making him stronger... That certainly won't happen instantly, but within two arcs he will reach AAA-rank and gain combat effectiveness comparable to that of Signum. /wall of text

*** AN**: There is no spoon!

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<br>chapter XIII: In the Aftermath of the Victory**

Only when Harry finally stepped back aboard of "Arthra" did he finally realize just how spent he was from fighting that abomination of the berserk Defense Program. And then, on captain Harlaown's request, he had also helped those two girls, Arisa and Suzuka, back to their homes. Yet, the night wasn't over for him just yet, and definitely not because it was Christmas.

They might have somehow beaten the Defense Program this time, but unless something more was done, that monster would just return in a couple of days, as powerful and as eager to cause death and destruction as ever. And, from what he had read between the lines, even Reinforce herself, despite being the Master Program of the Tome of the Night Sky, wasn't quite sure what needed to be done in order to prevent that beast's reincarnation.

Speaking of Reinforce... Even without using his magic to scan his surroundings, Harry could feel her unmistakably-massive presence aboard of "Arthra". And she, apparently, was guarded only by the Liese twins and a pair of bridge bunnies! That without any doubts was a huge risk, but right now the young Potter was too tired to really care about that. All he wanted right now was a good dinner and then some much-deserved rest.

Thus, ignoring just about everything and everyone, he headed straight to the kitchens. Once there, the green-eyed teen just heated some microwaveable stuff up, before making his way into the mess. And while Harry didn't really expect it to be choke-full with people – whats with everyone still busy dealing with the aftermath of the battle tonight – he was still kind of surprised to see that the only one there, besides him, was Fate Testarossa. Even then, the blond girl had somehow fallen asleep over her half-eaten dinner... Sighing softly, the green-eyed teen took a seat down the table and began consuming his own meal, while fighting against the desire to doze off himself.

Harry wasn't sure just how much time it took him to eat to his dinner, nor her really cared about that right now, but, eventually, he was done with it. And as he he carried his now-empty tray to the washing machines back in the kitchens, a thought occurred to him that he maybe shouldn't leave Testarossa-san there and, instead, should carry her to the room she shared with her familiar... Yeah, that would probably be the right thing to do...

Sighing, Harry made his way back into the mess. He then picked the sleeping girl up, a bit surprised and much melted by the way she unconsciously tried to snuggle into his chest, and began his not-so-long journey towards the "Arthra"'s living quarters.

Soon enough, the young Potter found himself in front of Testarossa-san's room. Thankfully, it wasn't locked, so he hadn't any problems with getting in... The lights inside were off and the room's only occupant, the orange-haired wolf-girl Arf, who was still wearing her barrier jacket, was fast asleep, sprawled across the only bed in the room. Creeping into the room, Harry carefully laid Fate down onto the unoccupied part of the bed. The said blonde mumbled something unintelligible in her sleep, before rolling over and snuggling into her familiar's side.

His 'mission' complete, the green-eyed teen silently left the girls' room, not forgetting to close the door behind himself, before making way to his own one. Which, thankfully was just a few doors down the corridor. Too tired to really care about that right now, he didn't bother with switching the light on or even undressing; instead he plopped onto his own bed still wearing his Ground Forces uniform.

"Phoenix Claw, wake me up in four hours." He addressed to his device, which acknowledged the command with a brief flicker of lights within its partially-visible crystalline core and a mental nod of sorts... With his alarm clock set, the young Potter allowed himself to drift into the land of dreams...

**~/ *** \~**

A little more than four hours later, still very drowsy Harry made his way to the briefing hall. Reinforce was still there, apparently still looking for the best way to stop the corrupted Defense Program from reincarnating. She wasn't working on that alone anymore, however. She now had Amy-sempai as her helper, even if the brown-haired girl didn't really know much if anything at all about how the Tome of the Night Sky was functioning.

"Mornin'" The green-eyed teen greeted them. Even if it still was night-time in Japan, high above which "Arthra" was positioned at the moment. Both girls greeted him curtly, before returning their attention to the numerous holographic displays with various charts and schemes that were floating around them. "So..." He continued. "Any progress you've made while I've been asleep?" There was a rather long pause, before Reinforce answered:

"It appears that only sure-fire way to completely destroy the Defense Program and its self-regeneration mechanism is for me to absorb it and then delete myself from existence. All other methods we had thought of had a distinct possibility of that corruption surviving and returning for a rematch." Amy confirmed had with a nod of her own.

"I don't think your mistress would like you committing a heroic sacrifice..." Harry commented as he took a seat across the table from his sempai. He then browsed through the notes the two girls had made in last four hours... And he noticed something interesting: "You have been only searching for the ways to completely delete the corrupted Defense Program from existence?" He asked then. "Wouldn't permanently halting the process of its regeneration achieve the same result of preventing it from coming back to cause death and destruction again?" There was a rather long pause. Apparently, neither Reinforce herself, nor Amy-sempai had thought about trying to solve _the problem_ from this angle.

"Actually, that sounds like a route we indeed should explore..." The avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky said finally. "Though, I'm not sure it will bear any fruit as the Defense Program is connected to the Tome very loosely and even I, the Master Program, can't influence it much."

"Well..." The brown-haired engineer spoke up, before asking a few questions: "Since it's a program, does it need to recompile itself as a part of its regeneration process? And if so, does it use its own compiler, or it makes use of the one you can influence?" Reinforce shook her head.

"No, all of the mechanisms required for its regeneration are not accessible to me." The silver-haired beauty replied. Another long pause occurred then as everyone was doing their best to think of another way to halt the corrupted Defense Program's regeneration in a way that wouldn't require Reinforce to commit a heroic sacrifice. Finally, after a few long minutes, an idea dawned upon Harry, and he was quick to share it:

"And would the Defense Program halt is regeneration if there is another active one within the Tome already?" He asked. There was a moment of silence as the girls processed his question.

"What do you mean 'another active one'?" The red-eyed beauty asked.

"If you make a dummy program that would since occupy its spot as a part of the Tome's systems, will the corrupted Defense Program stop regenerating?" The young Potter clarified.

"That might work..." Reinforce replied thoughtfully. "However, constructing even the simplest magical program that will be accepted by the Tome will take time, which we don't have that much. Nonetheless, I should try this one out: it is definitely a better alternative to – as you've so eloquently put it – committing a heroic sacrifice."

"Do you need any help?" Amy-sempai asked next.

"Only if you can really help." The silver-haired beauty responded.

As it was quickly discovered, though, neither Harry nor Amy, despite both of them being rather knowledgeable about developing software for Mid-Childan devices, couldn't provide any meaningful help when it came to the creation of programs for an ancient Lost Logia. As a result, the two of them moved to the sidelines and merely observed Reinforce as she worked on creating the dummy Defense Program for the Tome...

**~/ *** \~**

"Mind if I sit here?" Harry asked as he approached the table occupied by Testarossa-san during the lunch. Looking up at him from her meal, the blond girl shook her head.

"No." She replied while actually moving her tray a little bit to give him some more room... Apparently, his intent to talk to her was too obvious. Well, the green-eyed teen didn't really mind that as that indeed was what he wanted. Though... Now that he was actually sitting across the table from her, the young Potter found himself having troubles with coming up with words to say.

"Well..." He finally began a bit awkwardly. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry." This made Fate raise her eyebrow curiously. Even if Harry had been rather cold towards her this past week since they had been introduced to each other, she didn't remember him doing anything that would outright offend her even once. "Now that I've fought by your side, I can see that you are actually a good person. I still don't know the details of what had happened during the Jewel Seeds incident, but... Whatever the reason you had to collect those, you did it definitely not out of desire to hurt anyone... Now, I didn't know that back during your trial, and I've thought that the Bureau was too lenient on you and wished a greater punishment upon you. And for that, I'm sorry." There was a lengthy pause as the blonde processed what he had just said. "Testarossa-san?" Harry asked, wanting to hear a response, of any kind, from her.

"Fate." The red-eyed girl finally said in a barely audible voice.

"Huh?" The young Potter 'asked', not sure of what her response meant.

"You can call me by my name." Fate clarified. "And I forgive you." Now that she thought about it, those who were unaware of the reason why her ..._mother_ needed the Jewel Seeds, indeed could easily assume that she did for some malicious purpose.

"Thank you." Harry said, really grateful that she didn't hate him. A comfortable silence then fell upon them. However, it didn't last as...

"Forgive me if I'm intruding..." Captain Harlaown said, startling them both as they hadn't seen or heard her approach them. "But there are a few things that I need to inform you of." The teal-haired woman then made a short pause, before addressing Testarossa-san personally. "And I would like to have a few more words with you, Fate-chan, in private later."

"O-Of course, Lindy-san." The blonde girl replied.

"Well then,.." The "Arthra"'s captain said as she took a seat at their table. "First of all, let me once again express my and the Bureau's gratitude for your hard work in resolving this case. Because of your circumstances I can't really give you a field promotions or whatever, but I have sent the letters of recommendation to the headquarters... Harry-kun, you should be getting a promotion to sergeant as well as a reclassification into an A-rank aerial mage once you are back to Mid-Childa."

"Thank you, ma'am." The young Potter replied as he saluted in a bit awkward manner – he was still at the table, after all. Lindy waved her hand dismissively, before turning her attention to Testarossa-san.

"You, will also be promoted, Fate-chan, though, likely only to private first class. And the remaining duration of your mandatory service will be noticeably reduced." The red-eyed blonde nodded.

"Thank you, Lindy-san." She said. After a small pause, she added: "And what about Nanoha-chan?"

"She's a civilian collaborator, so the Bureau can only give her a monetary compensation – you two will be getting those as well, of course – at the moment. However, should she decide to enlist herself into our armed forces, she will be starting at the rank of a sergeant." Fate nodded.

"I see... Thank you."

**~/ *** \~**

It was close to an entire day since she had started working on it, when Reinforce finally announced that she was ready to 'install' the dummy Defense Program into the Tome in attempt to halt the regeneration of the original corrupted one. And, quite understandably, many aboard of "Arthra" wanted to see how this operation went. Thus, aside from the silver-haired avatar of the Tome of the Night Sky herself, a good half of the warship's crew was currently packed into the briefing hall, Lindy, Chrono, Fate, Amy and Harry included.

Reinforce herself had since moved into the corner of the hall, where she stood now, a glowing white Belkan triangle lazily rotating under her feet as the physical Tome, opened at some random page, was levitating in front of her. And there also was a small ball of light hovering above the opened Tome.

"You... gave it a Linker Core?" Amy asked in surprise as a quick scan made by her revealed that the aforementioned ball of light, the dummy Defense Program, indeed possessed its own magical core.

"Yes." Reinforce replied. "Having its own Linker Core is one of the requirements for a magical program to be accepted into the Tome of the Night Sky. The strength of that core, however, doesn't seem to matter. Thankfully. Splintering even that much from myself was not a simple task." That made a few people look at the silver-haired beauty in a small surprise: they hadn't expected her to go that far in her quest to prevent the corrupted Defense Program from reincarnating.

"So... You are going to install that dummy program now? How much time do we still have if that fails?" Captain Harlaown asked.

"That is correct." Reinforce answered the first question. "As for how much time we have before that monster respawns... I'd say, about six hours. Enough for me to have some last words with my master, before absorbing it into myself and deleting us both from existence." Lindy nodded, quite satisfied with that information. "Alright then, shall I begin?" The Master Program of the Tome of the Night Sky asked. Captain Harlaown gave her a nod.

Reinforce then began chanting something under her breath as the Belkan triangle under her feet began changing: first, it duplicated itself into a six-pointed star; and then a ring of runic symbols of Ancient Belkan alphabet surrounded this star, thus forming a 'proper' circle. Once that happened, the white glow coming from the runes intensified, while the the small light that was the dummy Defense Program began descending into the Tome, stopping just a few inches above the pages.

「_Validierung neuer Komponenten..._」 A mechanical voice announced, coming from the seemingly normal hardback book that the physical manifestation of the Tome of the Night Sky was. 「_Validierung erfolgreich..._」It said after a few seconds. And another moment later a few ribbons of light appeared out of the Tome's pages, before connecting themselves to the dummy Defense Program. 「_Installation neuer Komponenten..._」 The Belkan circle underneath Reinforce's feet flashed with white light as the Tome absorbed the new 'Defense Program' into itself. 「_Aktualisiere Register... Vorgang erfolgreich abgeschlossen..._」 With those final words spoken, the Tome snapped itself close.

"It seems that the new program has been accepted by the Tome." Reinforce commented. "Now... Let's see if that would indeed halt the regeneration of the corrupted Defense Program..." A holographic display popped into existence in front of the silver-haired beauty, showing some charts apparently only she herself could understand. There was a pretty long pause as she kept observing the readings on the displays... Then, she finally spoke again: "It seems that installing the dummy program in its slot has indeed stopped the regeneration of the corrupted Defense Program."

"Does that mean that that monster will not be returning this time?" Chrono asked.

"For as long as the physical Tome remains intact." Reinforce replied. "If it ever gets destroyed, so will be the dummy Defense Program I've just installed. And with it gone, the original one will immediately resume its regeneration." Lindy sighed. While the current solution seemed to be working alright, it was too friable to be left as it is.

"I do hope you will take additional measures to ensure that it never happens." She said.

"I will do my best to ensure the safety of the Tome." Reinforce reassured her. "I will also have its simulacrum created to be used as my or my master's device on the battlefield." And everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before they will have to enter one...

"We will do our best to assist you in that task." Captain Harlaown said then. After all, the safer the original Tome will be, the smaller the chance of the corrupted Defense Program making its return was. And making sure that it was never brought to the battlefield went a long way to ensure its safety...

"Thank you." Reinforce replied. She made a small pause, before adding: "Also, Shamal has contacted me yesterday night. It appears that my master will be discharged from the hospital this afternoon because her current condition is stable with no chance of relapses." Indeed, it was the incomplete Tome draining Hayate's mana that made her paraplegic in the first place. With the Tome no longer placing that kind of strain on the girl, her condition would slowly improve. Even her legs would heal naturally, though it will be some time before she is be able to walk on her own.

"I see..." Lindy responded. "I shall contact Nanoha-chan then. She wanted Hayate-chan to be there when she came clean with their friends about them being mages." Making a short pause, the teal-haired woman added then: "It will probably be the best if you accompany them too, Harry-kun."

"Alright." The young Potter agreed. After all, technically, he was the one who told Arisa-san and Suzuka-san about magic.

"Now then..." Captain Harlaown continued. "If you don't have anything else that requires you to be at full power, Reinforce-san, I'd like it if you let us place some limiters on your magic." While her tone remained pleasant, it was blatantly clear that 'no' was not an accepted answer here.

"Very well. However..." The silver-haired beauty replied, before suddenly flaring her killing intent to the point where some members of "Arthra"'s crew present were actually brought to their knees by it. "Harm my master in any way, and I _will_ turn you to dust." She promised in an ice-cold voice. Then her killing intent vanished as she switched back to her normal self. Without anything else said, she followed Lindy and Chrono out of the briefing hall obediently.

It was quite a few seconds, before the people still in the hall began getting better after what had just happened. And as those people began walking back to their stations, Harry turned to Amy.

"Sempai!" He called.

"Yes?" The brown-haired girl said as she stopped walking for a few moments to let the young Potter catch up with her. Then she continued on her way back to the bridge.

"Can I ask you to help me with something later?" He asked, making her raise an eyebrow curiously.

"With what?" She asked, unable to think of any reason he'd need her help now – after all, she was an engineer and a Device Meister, and had something been wrong with his device, he wouldn't have waited to ask her to fix it for this long, would he?

"You see..." Harry began. "I wanted to get my teachers and friends some souvenirs from my first mission, and... I want one of those to be some small cute plush I can give to Megane-sensei's daughter. Something that she'd love when she grows up a little."

"Oh." Amy breathed out. So that was what he wanted her help for.

"And I would also like it if you add a few extras to that toy later on." The green-eyed teen added then.

"Okay." The brown-haired girl replied. "If captain lets me have some free time during the day, I'll help you with that." Harry nodded.

"Thank you."

**~/ *** \~**

It was late in the afternoon or maybe even early in the evening when Harry teleported himself and Fate to the apartments owned by Harlaown family in the Uminari city. From there, the two of them made a quick way to the spot where Nanoha and Hayate were supposed to meet with them before the four of them will head to Arisa's mansion.

The said pair was already there, waiting for them. Along with knight Shamal, who, apparently, had helped her mistress there. Judging by the clothes Yagami-san was wearing, probably straight from the hospital too. Once the greetings – and some subtle threats about what will happen, should Hayate come to harm – were exchanged, the Knight of the Lake left, leaving the four, well, kids to their own devices for the rest of the day.

While Harry had already been there once, this was the first time he had actually taken a good look at the mansion Suzuka lived in. And, well, he was impressed. And, likewise, the Christmas tree in the house's main hall too was very impressive. However, obviously, the whole group wasn't going to spend the entire evening there, and so they soon retired to a veranda where the tea and confections were waiting for them. Then, trading stories began.

The young Potter had answered a few questions about how it was to live on a different planet, but, otherwise, he mostly listened to the stories of Nanoha's and Fate's adventures, just like Hayate, Arisa and Suzuka did. Apparently, those two had had some very interesting things happen around them that didn't find their way into the official reports about the Jewel Seeds incident... For example, he was completely unaware of the fact that Fate actually had a sister, who had been frozen in the state of the clinical death for the last quarter of a century. Nor did he know that Precia Testarossa was collecting the Jewel Seeds in hopes that their power would allow her to revive the said girl.

At one point, as Nanoha was telling her version of the events that had happened at the Garden of Time, she got particularly articulate and at the end of one of her passages ended up with her tea spoon pointed at Arisa's tea cup. And for whatever reason, the said girl immediately shifted away from her cup as if she was expecting Takamachi-san to blow it up with some sort of a beam spell. When Harry inquired about what was going on, the only answer he received was that Nanoha was one of the heirs to the Takamachi clan. As if that explained everything...

That little bit of mystery for Harry aside, the evening passed in a very pleasant way. Alas, it couldn't last forever and, before long, it began getting late. Which meant, it was the time for the three TSAB-aligned mages and Hayate to head back to their homes...

**~/ *** \~**

On the next day, another meeting was supposed to take place. And this one was without any doubts even more important: Nanoha was going to come clean with her family. Both about her being a mage, and about her participating in the events that took place in the Uminari city this past year. And captain Harlaown was going to attend that meeting herself!

Fate was obviously tagging along as it was her chance to spend some more time with Nanoha: their friendship was so obviously romantically tinged that even a blind person could see it. And Lindy had asked Harry to come with them because she thought that it will be a good chance to give the Takamachi family a glimpse at the Bureau from the perspective of someone who had joined it recently and out of his own volition.

What had surprised them all was Reinforce asking to join them. Apparently, the silver-haired beauty felt responsible for what her knights had done – namely, draining Nanoha's Linker Core during their quest to collect the 666 pages for the Tome – and wanted ask the girl's family for forgiveness... After some thinking, Captain Harlaown agreed to let her tag along, probably thinking that her unparalleled knowledge of magic and its history throughout the centuries might come in handy should the Takamachis ask some non-standard questions...

* * *

><p>A brown-haired woman that looked like an older version of Nanoha – the one with her hair down – opened the doors. Nanoha herself could be seen just a few steps behind her in the hall.<p>

"Ah, Lindy-san, Fate-chan, good afternoon. And do come in." Mrs. Takamachi greeted. Apparently, she had met those two before. "Nanoha-chan said that you'll be dropping by. She also mentioned that she has something very important to tell us all."

"Oh, I'm sure of it." Captain Harlaown replied. "This is why we're all here today, after all. Though, truth to be said, I myself had kept a few things from you and your family and would like to come clean now." Nanoha's mother raised her eyebrow, but otherwise hasn't commented on it. Yet.

"Shall we retire to the living room?" She asked instead. Once the four mages had removed their shoes, they were led into quite a spacious lounge, where the rest of the Takamachi family was seated on the mats around a low table. This included two virtually identical brown-haired brown-eyed men, who apparently were Nanoha's father and brother, and a brown-haired green-eyed girl – the only one in the entire family to wear glasses – that happened to be Nanoha's older sister.

"I guess, some introductions are in order." Captain Harlaown stated." Turning her attention to Harry and Reinforce, she continued: "This is Momoko and her husband Shirou Takamachi." She said as nodded towards the woman who greeted them at the doors and the older-looking of the two men. "Their son Kyouka and daughter Miyuki." She introduced the other two 'unknown' members of the Takamachi family. "And, I guess, you all have already met Nanoha-chan..." There was a small pause, before she continued, now addressing to Nanoha instead. "Now then, shall we introduce ourselves properly." The master of the intelligent device Raising Heart nodded.

"I'm Nanoha Takamachi, civilian collaborator to the Time-Space Administrative Bureau, and I'm a triple-A-ranked mage." There was a long pause as her family processed what they had just heard. After all, it was not every day you find out that your ten years old daughter/sister is actually someone who practices magic while working for some organization they had never heard of... Feeling her friend's growing nervousness, Fate too a step closer to Nanoha, discreetly joining their hands.

"So... You are something like a magical girl? Like those in an anime? You wear some frilly dresses and befriend some monsters into not attacking our city?" Miyuki asked, being the first one to overcome her shock over the revelation.

"Actually, over the last seven months your daughter has greatly assisted us in resolving two quite major cases that involved powerful and dangerous ancient magical artifacts." Lindy said. "Anyway, I'm the captain of the Bureau's fifth Dimensional Navy fleet L-class warship "Arthra", Lindy Harlaown. I'm a double-A-ranked mage from administered world #1, Mid-Childa." And under her breath she added something about probably being too out of shape due to all the time she spent doing mission control and pushing papers to placate the bureaucrats above her in the hierarchy.

This revelation probably caused even greater shock among the four non-magical members of the Takamachi family as, apparently, during their first introduction Lindy had pretended to be a civilian. That, and the teal-haired woman certainly didn't fit the portrait of your average captain of a space warship... Fate was the next one to speak:

"I'm Fate Testarossa, Bureau's Dimensional Navy Private third class. I'm a triple-A-ranked mage. Technically, I'm also from Mid-Childa." There was a small pause, before Harry introduced himself:

"My name is Harry Potter, and I'm a private second class from Mid-Childan Ground Forces 95th Battalion. I was temporarily transferred to "Arthra". Officially I'm a B-ranked mage. I was born on the non-administered world 138,.. It's also called Earth." The four older Takamachis turned their attention to Reinforce, who was the only one not to introduce herself.

"And, let me guess,.." Shirou spoke. "You are also a 'mage' from this Bureau?" He asked, making air quotes around 'mage'. The silver-haired beauty shook her head.

"Actually, no, I'm not a part of the TSAB. Yet." After a pause that lasted just a second, she continued: "I'm the avatar of the Master Program of a magical artifact known as the Tome of the Night Sky. My master has bestowed the name 'Reinforce' upon me." There was a long pause, which was eventually broken, again, by Mr. Takamachi.

"Alright. You all are magic users, right? And you all work or will be working for this 'Bureau'?" He received a round of nods. "Oka-a-ay... Can you please explain this all in more details?"

"Of course." Captain Harlaown said with a nod. "That's what we are here for, after all. Now then, where shall I begin?.."

**~/ *** Meanwhile on the non-administered world 138 *** \~**

"My God, Albus, what happened to you!?" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed as the Hogwarts's headmaster staggered into her domain, while pressing his left hand to a dangerously-bleeding deep wound on the left side of his stomach. He was also sporting some signs of having been on the receiving end of a few mildly-dark cutting and blasting curses recently.

"It looks like I'm not as young anymore as I tended to believe, Poppy." Dumbledore said as he took as seat on the closest bed available in the hospital wing. "Ten years ago I would have escaped such a confrontation without a scratch." The Hogwarts's matron gave him a silent glare since he wasn't exactly telling her what she needed to hear. Sighing, Albus gave the answers the nurse wanted from him: "The Dark Lord's agent within the castle decided that it was the time for him to make some... greater steps to further his master's goals. And those steps, apparently, involved him taking my blood against my will, before disposing me off. And while he definitely succeeded with the former, he failed with the latter: not only I'm alive, but were we not in the Entrance hall, I would have taken him down. Alas, he managed to slip out of the castle and retreated into the Forbidden forest."

"I see..." Madam Pomfrey said after a short pause. "Let me treat your wound, it can be poisoned or cursed heavily." Knowing that arguing with her was not the wisest thing he could do at the moment, Albus allowed her to do what she wanted, however, he did tell her his observations about that wound.

"The blood my attacker took from me will definitely be used in some sort of a dark ritual." The Hogwarts's headmaster commented. "Hence, it has to be uncontaminated. And because of that, the only curse my wound has on it is the one that prevents my blood from clotting. Alas, I'm not very skilled at healing charms myself, otherwise I'd have removed that curse already." Poppy nodded.

"And Fawkes?" She asked.

"He has taken a killing curse for me while I was still recovering from being impaled. He won't be able to help me any for at least a couple of days." Nodding again as she finished removing the curse, madam Pomfrey spelled the wound on headmaster's stomach shut, while summoning a few vials of blood-replenishing potions from the hospital wing's stores.

"Here, I'm sure you need these." She said, handing the aforementioned vials to Albus. "What are you going to do next? This activity of the Dark Lord's followers is highly-troubling." She said next.

"Well, I'm going to fully mobilize the Order. This time, hopefully, we will have enough of a head-start to prevent the worst of the tragedies." Dumbledore replied. "Also, I will have a meeting with the Minister as soon as possible. And while I'm quite aware that Mr. Malfoy is buying him with his gold, I'm sure I can make Cornelius see some reason. Especially if I don't mention the Death Eaters and their boss directly." Poppy nodded.

"I see..." She said. "And let's hope that you are right and this time we will be able to minimize the damage the Dark Lord will cause..."

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


	14. The Incident is Over

The fourteenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>serialkeller<strong>, **ultima-owner**, **lordamnesia**, **Ranmaleopard**, **celf**, **god of all**, **MWkillkenny84**, **Opinr**, **karthik9**, **jamnaz79**, **BBWulf**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>Penny is wise<strong>, **SonicAnime2010**, **Impstar**, **Jose19**, **Masked Critic**, I've answered your reviews via PMs.  
><strong>FateBurn<strong>, for the time being, it won't affect Harry's life at all - Voldemort can't really stretch his influence beyond the British Isles at the moment; how can he hope to affect someone on a different planet? But, eventually, the two of them are going to meet on the battlefield. In a not-so-distant future three arcs down the storyline.  
><strong>stux<strong>, thanks. Fixed.  
><strong>Megami-tan<strong>, Harry will be (temporarily) paired with Fate when they both are working as investigators for the Bureau. Not that it will divert Fate's affection away from a certain devil... As for why I have Lindy as a navy captain only, I put it right before the first chapter: some characters have their ranks altered to fit better with their roles in the story. Don't worry, though, Lindy is going to be promoted to rear admiral soon.  
><strong>Knight of the Iron Hammer Vita<strong>, no, there will be no Materials, at least within the planned arcs.

*** AN**: As you might have noticed, this chapter had gone through a development hell. And I'm still far from satisfied with how it turned out. Yet, I don't think I can improve it any. So, here we go...

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<strong>  
><strong>chapter XIV: The Incident is Over<br>**

It was five days since the battle against the Tome of the Night Sky's corrupted Defense Program and "Arthra" was now getting ready to depart for the Bureau's headquarters. Nanoha, who was called upon to testify in the court case against Reinforce and her knights, had already moved aboard earlier this morning – apparently, her parents were quite alright with letting their ten years old daughter to go with the aliens to another planet for a couple of weeks all by herself... Such strange people they are...

And with Reinforce also aboard already, all that was needed to do before "Arthra" could set sails was collecting Hayate and the Wolkenritter. Well, the knights actually could teleport themselves and their mistress up there all by themselves, but no one had given them the necessary coordinates. Yet. Plus, letting them come in without any 'guards' accompanying them would be a breach of protocols... Hence, Chrono, Harry and Fate were sent to get them.

The three of them teleported to the apartment Harlaown apartment, and from there they made a quick walk to the the Yagami residence. Hayate and her knights – all of whom, sans Zafira who turned into a big blue wolf, were dressed in casual clothes instead of their armors – were already waiting for them in front of the house, their things packed into two big valises.

"I see, you are all prepared to leave." Chrono said without as much as 'hello'. It was one of his faults: whenever he was incited about some job, he tended to go all-business to the point of dropping most forms of politeness out his speech if his superiors weren't around. Thankfully, Harry and Fate were there to counterbalance the enforcer-in-training as the two of them greeted Hayate and her knights.

"Yes, we are ready to follow you aboard of warship "Arthra"." Signum replied, but not before giving a polite nod of greeting to Testarossa-san. Apparently, those two were on rather friendly terms even if they had been enemies until just five days ago.

"Is the house surrounded by a barrier?" Chrono asked next as he eyed the property. Indeed, now that Harry concentrated, he could pick some traces of powerful passive magics surrounding the house, or at least its backyard, in a protective cocoon of barriers.

"Yes, we did install some defenses back when have been first activated to serve mistress Hayate." Shamal spoke. "No magic that happens within the house should be noticeable by those who lack in power to be mages. The barriers should also be able to make standard magic sensors ineffective at best, but that's not important right now." Well, that would certainly explain why no one had been able to find the knights' base of operation when they still were the 'bad guys', even if it was just half a dozen blocks away from the Takamachi household.

"In that case, why don't we depart from inside of your house instead?" Chrono asked then. As both the knights and the Bureau representatives nodded in agreement, the eight of them entered the house, which, Harry noted, was quite spacious and well-furnished. For a brief moment the green-eyed teen wondered how Hayate came to own this house at her age, but he quickly squashed the desire to ask this question: orphans don't magically appear out of thin air – this must be her parents' house or something like that and asking about it would not only be impolite but could also possibly bring back the memories the brown-haired girl would rather forget...

"How are we going to be proceed from there?" Signum asked then. This question was followed by a somewhat lengthy discussion as the group was coming to a decision on whom each of the three Bureau agents will be taking to "Arthra". In the end, it was decided that Fate will be the one to teleport Hayate: she was the only one whom Signum was willing to entrust her mistress to – a declaration that made the blonde girl blush quite a bit. Harry will be transporting Shamal and Zafira, while the remaining two knights ended up with the black-haired enforcer-in-training as their 'guide'.

"Alright!" Amy said as her communication window popped into existence in front of the group. "You have our permission for the transfer. Captain's waiting for you." Chrono thanked her curtly, before nodding to Harry, who was supposed to go first. Nodding back, the young Potter manifested the spell.

"Ready?" He asked the two knights. Receiving their nods, he activated the magic. "**Dimensional Transfer!**" The green-eyed agent of the Bureau called and a moment later the three of them disappeared from the Hayate's house in a flash of light. A second later they reappeared in the "Arthra"'s transportation chamber. Reinforce and captain Harlaown herself were there to greet them... Not intending to stall others, Harry, Shamal and Zafira stepped off the platform and moved to stand besides the aforementioned pair of ladies.

"_Harry-san?_" The blond knight asked telepathically. "_Can I ask you why your magical circle is so ...unique?_" Indeed, the four Wolkenritter and Reinforce herself had been active at various points of time throughout the last few millenniums, yet they had never seen anything like that. They've actually meant to ask him this question ever since they had seen him use his magic in the battle against the corrupted Defense Program. It's just they haven't had a good chance to do that until now...

"_No idea, really._" The teen gave his answer. "_It was like that ever since I first accessed my magic._"

"_Oh, okay..._" Shamal replied, not really sure what else she could say here.

Meanwhile, Fate teleported in with Hayate and the baggage. And a few seconds after that Harry was treated to a sight of Reinforce being all emotional as she showered her mistress with loads and loads of motherly – and not so motherly too – affection... Affection that the wheelchair-bound girl eagerly reciprocated. That was such a heartwarming scene that Harry almost missed Chrono bringing the remaining two knights aboard of "Arthra". Lindy, though, didn't.

"Alright." The teal-haired captain announced. "We're ready to set sails." Then she turned to look at the Queen of the Night Sky. "Hayate-chan, do you want to take a look at your planet before we slip into the Dimensional Sea?" She asked then. The brown-haired girl looked up from Reinforce's bosom, which she had been snuggling into at the moment.

"Can I?" She asked.

"Of course." Captain Harlaown replied. Hayate looked at the silver-haired avatar of the Tome's Master Program then. The said beauty nodded.

"Alright." She said. "Shall we head there, master?" Reinforce asked as she began pushing Hayate's wheelchair towards the "Arthra"'s bridge...

* * *

><p>Much later that day, after the dinner, Harry found himself in the wardroom enjoying an enlightening conversation about the origins of the TSAB with Yuuno: the boy's grandfather was actually the one who wrote the history book that the Bureau's cadets had to study as a part of their graduation exam. But the young Potter also couldn't help but steal glances at Reinforce from time to time.<p>

The said red-eyed beauty had settled on one of the sofas, apparently content to just sit there cradling dozing off Hayate, who sat sideways in her lap with her head resting against her ample chest, in a gentle and loving embrace.

Yet, for whatever reason, Harry still had troubles with thinking about Reinforce as something other than a magical juggernaut that she was on a battlefield. This was probably the reason why he felt the need to take look at her once in a while, to confirm that she really was a human being and not just a magical weapon of mass destruction that happened to look like one... That, and she was beautiful. And Harry was a teenaged boy after all...

**~/ *** \~**

"Good afternoon, Cornelius." Dumbledore said as he walked into the Minister for Magic's office. The said man hummed something not really intelligible to acknowledge the Chief Warlock's presence, but for the next few seconds he continued reading some document. Finally, placing that long roll of parchment onto his table, Mr. Fudge greeted Albus back:

"Ah, professor, it's nice to see that you are once again with us." While Cornelius had distanced himself from Dumbledore a little bit in the recent months, their relationship was still pretty friendly.

"Yes, Poppy can work miracles." The Hogwarts's headmaster agreed: it took madam Pomfrey just a few days to bring him back to full health after the Dark Lord's agent had impaled him through his gut. "Anyhow, Cornelius, there are some important things that I need to discuss with you, in private if you don't mind." Nodding, the Minister asked the auror guard stationed in his office to temporarily leave. Once the man walked out of the door, Dumbledore applied a few quick but powerful wards to make eavesdropping impossible. Even by the 'bugs' already inside the office, as long as those were purely magical in nature.

"Alright, what did you want to talk about, professor?" Mr. Fudge asked.

"The recent increase in the activity of the darker elements is troubling. First, there was that incident during the Quidditch World Cup; then there is the case of an attack on that muggle village in the upper England; and now someone had tried to outright assassinate me." Albus said. "Maybe, you should reconsider your decision about cutting the budget of the DMLE, Cornelius. Doing that right now will only make the situation worse."

"B-But I've already promised to do that!" Minister replied. "What would happen to my ratings if I suddenly go back on my word and do exactly the opposite?" Dumbledore shook his head.

"There are things more important that those ratings, Cornelius." The Chief Warlock of Wizengamot said in a wise grandfatherly tone. "It's your duty as the Minister for Magic to ensure that our country is a safe and peaceful place to live. And seeing how this is all about national security, I'm sure that people will understand your change of mind." This made Mr. Fudge pause as he thought about it. On one hand, he was a politician who greatly enjoyed the perks of his position and didn't want to lose it. But he was also a patriot and he didn't want his country to turn into a hotbed of criminal activity in Europe...

"You are probably right, professor. I will see what I can do. But you know how everything works here, right? I can't really promise you anything about this." He said after a rather long pause. Dumbledore nodded: this was as much as he could possibly get out of the Minister today.

**~/ *** \~**

"Arthra" finally arrived to the Bureau's headquarters in the late afternoon of the next day. And by the time the warship finally entered the docks, there was a whole dozen of enforcers, easily distinguished by their black uniforms, and about thirty more combat mages already waiting for them... Well, their presence was understandable as Reinforce and the Wolkenritter were considered to be criminals; their numbers, however... Even captain Harlaown was surprised by the amount of manpower the TSAB had sent to secure those five.

Once the docking sequence was completed, the enforcers stepped aboard of "Arthra". Lindy then had a brief conversation with their apparent leader. As it turned out, aside from getting the knights and the Tome's Master Program to the holding cells, they had also been tasked with escorting Yagami-san to the medical bay so that she could be given a complete magical physical.

At that point Reinforce stepped in and pointed out that Shamal should accompany Hayate to that medical bay – the blond knight was the healer of their little group and her knowledge of their mistress' condition could be very helpful to the local doctors. And the silver-haired beauty also implied that doing so would make her more cooperative as well.

Since that was a reasonable suggestion, the enforcers took into consideration and, after coordinating it with their superiors, agreed to it.

Thus, the small army the TSAB had sent to secure the Tome's Master Program and her knights split into two uneven parts. The smaller one, consisting of just two enforcers and five 'normal' mages escorted Hayate and Shamal towards the medical bay, while the rest of the Bureau operatives plus Chrono headed for the holding cells. Oh, and for whatever reason the Liese twins went with that group instead of going back to their master's side. And, at least to Harry, it looked almost as if those two were criminals themselves...

"Alright..." Nanoha said after a long pause when the enforcers had finally left "Arthra". "We're supposed to stay put here for the next few days so that they can question us, right?" Captain Harlaown nodded. "What shall we be doing then? I mean..." Indeed, at this giant space station in the middle of the Dimensional Sea there wasn't much that could pass as an entertainment for ten years old girls.

"Well... I think you should visit Mariel-chan to make sure that Raising Heart and Bardiche are in a good condition. You two have put quite a lot of stress on your devices during that last battle." Amy spoke up as she approached them.

"That sounds like a good idea." Lindy agreed with the brown-haired engineer.

"And I'll just tag along. It's been months since I've spoken to Mari-sempai in person." Harry added, confusing the hell out of Nanoha and Fate.

"You know Atenza-san, Harry-kun?" Takamachi-san asked, surprise clear in her voice. The green-eyed teen leveled a playfully accusing glare at Amy.

"Sempai, you never told them that, did you?" Sighing as his sempai just shrugged in response, Harry elaborated: "Amy-sempai, Mari-sempai and I myself were all apprenticed under warrant officer Kyoko Chidori together. Technically, I'm still her apprentice, though Quint Nakajima-sensei is usually the one to train me these days." Since neither Nanoha nor Fate could really recognize those names, they just nodded, accepting his explanation. Lindy, on the other hand, definitely knew about the purple-haired investigator. And while she too didn't say anything out aloud, it was clear as a day to the young Potter that "Arthra"'s captain was reevaluating him in her head.

"Anyway..." Amy broke the sudden pause. "Shall we go pay Mari-chan a visit now?"

* * *

><p>"Oh, hello, guys!" Mariel greeted her guests as she looked up from her workplace – a table that was littered with a few half-assembled cores, other devices' components and piles of paper blueprints with a cup of coffee lost somewhere among this chaos.<p>

"Good afternoon, sempai." Harry greeted back. Then he looked round her table. "Looks like they keep you busy these days." The green-haired Device Meister nodded.

"Yeah, since we now have a successful case of integration of the Belkan Cartridge System into the third generation Mid-Childan intelligent devices, the higher-ups want to upgrade all such devices currently in use. And, they also want me to assist with the development of the fourth generation devices, that would include the Cartridge System by default." Well, that would certainly explain why Mari's table was swamped by this mountain of papers... Meanwhile, the young Device Meister continued: "Speaking of which, how are Raising Heart and Bardiche? Let me have a look at them."

"Okay." Nanoha said as she and Fate handed their devices to Mariel. The green-haired girl, accepting them, paused for a moment, before addressing to Harry:

"While we are at it, let me see how you 'Claw is doing as well." And while his device was completely fine – it was built to withstand a lot of punishment, after all – the young Potter nonetheless removed his 'bracer' and gave it to his sempai, who them made her way to a diagnostic machine standing in the corner of her office. Placing the devices in it, Mariel turned the machine on and input a few commands into it to make it run an analysis on the three devices.

A bit surprisingly, at least for Harry and Amy, it took the machine only a few minutes to complete the diagnosis, at which point it popped a multitude of holographic displays all around Mariel, showing her about everything it managed to 'learn' about the devices it had just tested.

"Well..." The green-haired Device Meister began once she had made heads or tails of these reports. "Phoenix Claw is in a good condition, as expected." She said as handed the said device back to Harry, who quickly slipped it back onto its place on his right hand. "Bardiche is also alright. Though, Fate-chan, if you plan on use Zanber form a lot, I should strengthen the frame a bit more, lest it fails at the worst possible moment."

"Could you please do that anyway, Mari-san?" The blond girl said after a small pause. "We will be here at the headquarters for the next week or so... Will that be enough of time for you to upgrade Bardiche?" Mariel nodded.

"I'll do my best to complete it before "Arthra" has to leave." She promised. Nodding at Fate's 'Thank you', she continued, now addressing to Nanoha: "Raising Heart, on the other hand, needs to undergo maintenance: Exelion mode puts too much stress on its frame. It has been less than a month and it already has some miniature fractures." Takamachi-san pouted, mumbling something unintelligible under her breath, but, nonetheless, allowed Mari to take Raising heart from her so that it could be repaired. "Alright then." The green-haired Device Meister continued. "Want some tea? I was about to have a break anyway."

Of course, with everyone sharing the stories that had happened around them in the past weeks, this tea break lasted far longer than Mariel intended. But did she mind this? Probably, no...

**~/ *** \~**

Late in the morning next day – or at least it was so according to the clock: daytime and nighttime looked absolutely no different from each other here in the middle of the Dimensional Sea – Harry was summoned to the Enforcer division headquarters to bear witness in the court case against Reinforce and the Wolkenritter.

A grumpy man in black uniform met him at the headquarters' entrance and guided the green-eyed teen trough a couple of corridors that were not much different from those in any other military facility and to a 'guest' room that was essentially a more pleasant version of an interrogation chamber. In there another, even more grumpy, enforcer was already waiting for him, seated behind a large but plain table.

"Let's get straight to business." The man said. "Sergeant Potter of Mid-Childan Ground Forces 95th Battalion?" Harry raised an eyebrow. True, captain Harlaown had told him that he will get a promotion, but he honestly hadn't expected that to happen so quickly. Nonetheless, he gave the enforcer a positive reply. "Good. Now tell me about the guardian knights of the Tome of the Night Sky."

"I haven't met them until the battle against the corrupted Defense Program, so... But from my personal experiences, they are decent people. I actually kind of owe my life to the two of them even." Here the green-eyed teen made a small pause. "The four of them seem to genuinely care about their mistress, Hayate Yagami, though not much about anyone else besides her..." It appeared that the stoic knight of the sword, Signum, also had a soft spot for one Fate Testarossa, but Harry decided not to mention that explicitly. "They did threaten us with retaliation should we harm their mistress, but beyond that they have been most cooperative during and after the battle." The enforcer questioning him nodded. He didn't need to write anything down himself as his device was recording the questioning for him.

"And what about the Master Program?" The man asked then.

"Reinforce?" The young Potter replied. "Well, ever since she had been separated from the corrupted Defense Program, she has been non-hostile towards us. Also, while I'm definitely not the best one at reading others' emotions, she appears to lack any desire to hurt or kill others: according to her, the original purpose of the Tome was to merely collect and preserve magical knowledge. Reinforce cares about Hayate-san and her knights very much, but is mostly neutral towards the others." The enforcer across the table nodded again.

"So,.. You are saying that the corrupted Defense Program was what had turned the Tome's Master Program into a planet killer?" He asked then.

"It appears to be so." Harry confirmed. There was a pause that lasted for a few seconds, before the man in the black uniform spoke again:

"And one more question, sergeant. What can you tell us about Hayate Yagami-san?" Harry gained a thoughtful look for a few moments: he hadn't interacted with her much as she usually hanged around Reinforce and the Wolkenritter or Nanoha and Fate.

"Well, according to her knights, she is the most kind and loving mistress they have ever had." The green-eyed teen finally began. "And based on what I've observed, that might actually be not far from the truth. And... I can't really see her ordering the Wolkenritter to attack people in order to collect the pages for the Tome." The enforcer questioning him leaned back in his chair.

"Alright. This would be all for now." He said. "We thank you for your cooperation with us, sergeant. We ask you to remain within the headquarters for the next few days in case we have some more questions we would like to ask you." Harry nodded, even if he'd rather return to Mid-Childa.

"Very well." He replied. The enforcer behind the table then nodded to his colleague, who in turn proceeded to show the young Potter out.

**~/ *** \~**

There had been no further questions the enforcers wanted to ask Harry, though. Actually, the trial on the case of Reinforce and her knights itself was held on the fifth day since the arrival of "Arthra" to the Bureau headquarters.

Hayate-san, somehow, ended on the dock too... Thankfully, she was only charged with negligence and thus her punishment was a mere year of probation only. And she wasn't even required to remain on the administered worlds to serve her sentence.

The Wolkenritter, of course, didn't get off as easily. The four knights received the sentence of twelve years of mandatory service and fifteen more years of probation for endangering civilian population of a non-administered world, multiple cases of assault on Bureau's personnel and civilian collaborators. And for the first three years, they were to wear the limiters to restrict their powers to just B rank. And that was only for whatever they had done in their current incarnation...

Thankfully for them, the court took their familiar-like status into consideration and decided to permit them to be by their mistress' side, two at a time and with the condition that the time they spend off the administered worlds would not count towards their mandatory service time or probation. Not that the Wolkenritter minded it all that much as they won't be completely separated from Hayate...

Reinforce got even harsher punishment. Partially because she didn't have the exculpation of being essentially reborn with each reincarnation of the Tome. At least, since everyone agreed that the past Book of Darkness incidents had been caused by the corrupted Defense Program, she won't be locked away in the prison until the end of times... Instead, she was facing thirty years of mandatory service with fifty more years of probation on top of that; her unison abilities will be sealed away; and she'll have to add all of the spell knowledge she had accumulated over the millenniums of her existence to the Infinite Library. And, of course, she will have to wear the magic limiters too. Twelve in her case; out of which six would be permanent, three more could be temporarily released by the current commanders of the TSAB and the final three would be controlled by her mistress, once she was done with her own probation.

Just like her knights, Reinforce didn't protest her punishment. She did make one single request, though. The silver-haired beauty wanted to transfer the guardian knights from herself directly to her mistress, but since she wasn't sure about the power requirements for that, she wanted to be allowed to do that before the final six limiters sealed her power under the double-S rank. The panel of judged was actually surprised by the nature of her request, however, after some debates, they decided to give Reinforce a green light and let her do that.

**~/ *** \~**

With the Book of Darkness incident now officially over, everyone was about to go their separate ways: Nanoha and Hayate, the latter accompanied by two of her knights, Shamal and Vita, would return back to the non-administered world 97; Harry would rejoin his battalion on Mid-Childa; Fate and Arf, being a part of "Arthra"'s crew, would remain aboard of the warship for the time being; Yuuno and Chrono would stay at the headquarters to keep an eye on Reinforce while she uploaded her spell knowledge into the Infinite Library; and Signum and Zafira would go to whatever world and unit the Bureau commanders would assign them to.

Thus, before everyone split up for gods know how long, captain Harlaown decided to throw a small party for everyone aboard of "Arthra". While the idea was a good one, however, for whatever reason, the party itself didn't turn out as fun as Lindy had envisioned it. After all, it was more or less that type of a gathering where people were basically bidding farewell to each other... Not that it was a wasted time, though, as while some, like Hayate and Reinforce, were just telling goodbye, the others were actually solving some quite important problems...

"So,..." Harry began a bit awkwardly as he approached the pink-haired knight of the sword, who was sitting in the corner of the hall quietly. "Do you still not know what unit you will be assigned to?" He asked. Signum took a sip from her cup, before answering:

"Actually, we've been contacted about an hour ago by the TSAB commanders." She said. "I was assigned to the 73rd Capital Air Force Wing on Mid Childa." If the young Potter remembered correctly, the said wing had its base located about twenty miles to the north-east of Cranagan...

"And the others, if it's not a secret?" He prodded.

"Well..." The leader of the Wolkenritter began. She paused for a moment, before deciding that it would be okay to reveal this information to him. "It seems that we all will be serving our sentences on Mid-Childa for the time being: Shamal will be joining the Ninth Medical and Sanitary Battalion; Zafira was assigned to the Fourth Ground Forces Academy as an assistant instructor for unarmed combat; and Vita is going to be a part of the 75th Capital Air Force Wing."

"And Reinforce? Once she's done at the Infinite Library that is." Harry asked next.

"Our mistress was assigned to the 102nd Ground Forces Battalion." The pink-haired knight replied.

"I see..." The young Potter replied, while trying to deduce the reasons why the four knights and their even more powerful mistress would be placed into the units stationed not only on the same planet, but within the same region on it. The very region containing the planet's capital, actually... "And where will you all be living?" He asked meanwhile. After all, Cranagan, like pretty much any other megalopolis, was not a place you could just come to and get yourself a residence without having either connections or lots of money.

"We will probably stay at the barracks of our units." Signum said after thinking about it for a second. "Or, alternatively, we might rent a room or two at some of the Bureau's hostels within the city."

"Hm..." Even years later, Harry still wouldn't be able to explain what possessed him to say this, but he never regretted it: "I do own a pretty big apartment. If and when I finish the renovations to make it truly habitable, you can move in there with me." There was a pause as Signum definitely hadn't expected to hear something like that from him – she had thought him to be far less trusting than that...

"And how much needs to be done before you can move in there?" Chrono, who had approached them just in time to hear their discussion of the lodging problems, asked.

"Well..." The young Potter began: "Most of the furniture needs to replaced; wallpapers in the living room have come unstuck in a few places, so they should be replaced as well... The rest aren't this bad, but I'd replace them too. And then the kitchen and the bathroom would benefit from some upgrades as well..." He said. The enforcer-in-training was silent for a few moments before giving his answer:

"That's quite a lot of things... I'm not sure it all can be done in less than a week even if you offer a huge bonus for promptness." Harry's face at that moment told Chrono that money were an issue here as well. "Don't worry, I know someone who wouldn't mind sponsoring these renovations." He added with a smile that was not at all convincing that whoever that someone was, he or she would part with his money all that willingly. "So, do you want my assistance with refurbishing your apartment?"

"Alright." Harry said after a rather long pause.

"I shall arrange for the workers tomorrow morning." The enforcer-in-training continued. "You should prepare the designs for what you want in the meantime. Just don't go overboard – your sponsor doesn't have infinite wealth." The young Potter just nodded in response...

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!

*** AN**: Three guesses, who will sponsor the creation of "villain central" on Mid-Childa.


	15. Upgrades

The fifteenth chapter of the "_**Bureau agent Potter**_" is here! Enjoy!

*** Review Response**:  
><strong>Ranmaleopard<strong>, **jgkitarel**, **solitare**, **FateBurn**, **serialkeller**, **ultima-owner**, **ShugoYuuki123**, **celf**, **Penny is wise**, **Opinr**, thank you for your reviews, folks!  
><strong>Megami-tan<strong>, yes, even if Eins is still alive, Zwei (though she'll go by a different name) will eventually be created. As for Harry and Fate working together... can't really say that it will happen soon, but it will happen.  
><strong>MWkillkenny84<strong>, I think Raising Heart is more of a blood knight than her mistress. Not that Nanoha herself is shy about befriending people...  
><strong>Jose19<strong>, I've answered your review via PM.  
><strong>The 10th Wand<strong>, about money "issue" - Harry has spent almost all of his seed money on buying the apartment (1 kg of gold costs about $38600 right now; so unless Mid-Childa has awesomely-cheap real estate, a four-rooms apartment like Harry's will be QUITE expensive).  
><strong>SonicAnime2010<strong>, we've discussed the issue via PM and agreed to disagree. Still, I hope you will find it in yourself to come back and be my reader and reviewer once again one day...

*** AN**: Apparently, the development hell was bigger than I've anticipated: this chapter too took me quite some time to write... Also, the plush Harry had bought for Lutecia will play a rather important role in a couple of arcs.

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: I DO NOT own "**_Harry Potter_**" or "**_Mahou Shojou Lyrical Nanoha_**". No profit is being made. Same goes for other books, anime & manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"  
>"<em>telepathy<em>"  
>'<em>thinking<em>'  
>"<strong>spells<strong> / **devices speaking**"  
><em>written messages<em>

* * *

><p><strong>Bureau Agent Potter<strong>  
><strong>ch<strong>**apter XV: Upgrades**

'_At long last._' Harry thought as the shuttle began descending towards Cranagan. Just a little bit more, and he will be back home! There still were a few things – like writing a proper report on his participation in the Book of Darkness incident for captain Steinmetz and other commanders of the 95th Battalion – that he needed to do before he could get his leave warrant, but...

Granted he probably won't have much time to relax properly during his leave this time, what's with managing the renovations of his apartment and all, but those were 'good' troubles and something he didn't really mind.

Speaking of renovations... While the designs of the kitchen, the bathroom and even the living room didn't need to be changed much to accommodate his new cohabitants, the same couldn't be said about the rest of the rooms: the Wolkenritter did need space for themselves after all. Even Zafira, despite his insistence that he will be fine regardless.

Thus, the the three remaining rooms got their roles changed. The smallest one, the designated future nursery, was given to Zafira. It would also be the place where the less often used things belonging to the knights will be stored. The master bedroom would be moved to the middle room, while its former room, became a place where the three female knights and Reinforce – and Hayate too, if and when she comes to visit – will be nestling. Not the most fair of arrangements, true, but it was a passable one...

With that in mind, the young Potter spent the flight from the Bureau headquarters to Mid-Childa flipping through some interior design catalogs he had downloaded onto his device, looking for some ideas and solutions he would like to see used in his renovated apartment.

Alas, the flight was nearly over as the shuttle was already descending towards the landing pad located in the TSAB administrative complex at the very heart of Cranagan, and so he had to postpone further study of the catalogs until later... Oh well, at least the workers Chrono had hired for him had something to do for the next two or so days without him putting forth a request for the new furniture.

Closing the holographic display, he turned to look at the two knights seating besides him. Zafira was currently packing a book he had been reading until now, Ground Forces regulation judging by the cover, into his bag. And Signum was 'waking up' – as if resting with her eyes closed prevented the pink-haired swordswoman from being keenly aware of everything that had been happening around her.

"Well..." Harry began a bit awkwardly. "Welcome to Mid-Childa, I guess." He said, before asking: "You do have your identifications, right?" The two knights nodded.

"Yes, they had us obtain them after the trial." Signum added.

"Alright." The green-eyed teen replied, feeling a bit relieved that he won't have to drag them to the Migration Services offices. "And you've decided to stay at the barracks of your respective units the apartment is ready, right?" The knights nodded again. "Then, I guess, I'll be a bad host and won't accompany you to your units' locations."

"Don't worry about that." Zafira reassured him. The two Wolkenritter were quite capable of getting to their respective units by themselves, after all. And they could understand that Harry had other things he had to do today, other than guiding them around the city all day.

"Thank you." The young Potter said with a nod as the three of them joined the queue of people disembarking from the shuttle.

* * *

><p>Even if the written reports didn't have to be submitted right away, Harry still had to drop by own battalion and notify his commanding officers that he was back. And, of course, like it always was in any proper bureaucracy, something that could be done in five minutes instead took at least an hour to complete. Thus, by the time the green-eyed teen finally got back to the hostel room he was currently still living in, he barely had any strength left in him...<p>

Just as he walked into his room, his attention was drawn by a very familiar hoot coming from just outside the window. Indeed, Hedwig was sitting there on a tree branch as she waited for him. How she knew that he was back from his assignment, the young Potter wasn't sure he'll ever understand. Hedwig was a clever girl, though, she must have figured that out somehow...

Opening the window to let her in, Harry collapsed onto the bed, too tired to do anything else at the moment. Unpacking his things and contacting the Nakajimas so that he could get Hedwig's things back could wait till tomorrow. With that thought in mind, he drifted off...

**~/ *** \~**

"So that is where she disappeared yesterday in the early evening." Quint said once Harry – with his owl perched on his shoulder – dropped by the Nakajima residence the next morning.

"Yea, she somehow felt that I've returned and flew there to greet me, such a clever girl." The green-eyed teen commented while stroking Hedwig's feathers. The said bird 'thanked' him with a smug hoot. "Anyway, sensei, I'm done with that assignment." He continued. "So, I'll be taking Hedwig's things back... She didn't cause you too much trouble, did she?"

"No, not at all." The purple-haired knight replied. "Actually, I think my girls enjoyed taking care of her. Maybe Genya and I should get them some pet?.." She asked no one in particular. "And, what that assignment was, if it's not a secret? I managed to dig up that your transfer orders originated from counter admiral Graham, but beyond that..." She asked then. Harry chuckled.

"Not from someone like you." He said. Indeed, a successful investigator like her wouldn't be kept in the dark about this for long. Especially with Reinforce and the Wolkenritter joining the Bureau. "I had been assisting with resolving a Book of Darkness incident. The very last one." The purple-haired beauty had definitely heard a lot of stories about this particular Lost Logia, thus learning that her kind-of student had to face that monster on a battlefield definitely shocked and upset her.

"Oh my..." Quint breathed out. "That's one hell of a baptism of fire, though..." Well, Harry totally agreed with her on this one. There was a pretty long pause, before she continued, in a much more cheerful tone: "Anyway, you're here to take your owl's things away, right? Let's go get them."

"Yeah." The young Potter agreed. "But before that... Well... Here..." He said as he handed his sensei a bundle wrapped in cheerfully-colorful paper. "A few souvenirs from the non-administered world ninety-seven for you. Nothing truly imaginative, but..." He explained.

"Oh." The purple-haired knight breathed out. "You didn't have to, Harry." The said teen merely waved his hand in response, telling her that it was alright.

"Also,.." He continued: "Where can I find Megane-sensei these days? I have some for her and little Lulu too." Quint was silent for a few moment as she tried to decide what she should do about it. In the end, she decided to just give her friend's contacts to Harry and let the two of them arrange something between themselves. "Thank you, sensei." He said as he saved Megane's number into his phone book. The purple-haired knight in front of him just smiled in response.

An annoyed hoot from Hedwig then reminded them both that Harry originally came here to collect her things. Quint playfully chided the said snowy owl for being too pushy – to which the bird responded with another hoot – before leading the young Potter into Ginga's and Subaru's room where the cage, the perch and other supplies were kept...

* * *

><p>In the afternoon, Harry paid visit to his other mentor, 'doctor' Kyoko Chidori, bringing the souvenirs he had bought for her along, of course. When he had arrived to her office, the blond scientist was looking through what he recognized as Mariel-sempai's report on the interactions between the Belkan Cartridge System and the Mid-Childan Intelligent Devices.<p>

"Following the Mari-chan's success with Raising Heart and Bardiche, the higher-ups decided that as many of the agents as possible should have the Cartridge Systems installed into their devices." The Device Meister said. "Of course, the on-field commanding officers will be the first ones to receive such upgrades, but..." Here a somewhat mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. "Since you are my student, Harry, I believe, I can give you yours out of turn. If anyone asks, that was me mastering the techniques required to install the system." Harry couldn't help by let out a chuckle at this.

"And can I maybe get some other upgrades for 'Claw while we're at it?" He asked.

"Well,.." 'Doctor' Chidori said. "While the installation of the Cartridge System will be paid for by the Bureau in full, the rest of the upgrades you might want to install will follow the standard schema of fifty-fifty." The young Potter nodded: he had expected as much. Seeing that, his mentor continued: "Well then, what do you have in mind?"

"How about something like this..." And then Harry proceeded to describe, with quite a few details, actually, what he wanted as the new and upgraded form of his device to the blond scientist.

"So..." She concluded. "You want to turn it into an armed device, more or less." Indeed, the upgrades for his Phoenix Claw that he had in mind would make fall outside of the classic 'Storage Device' class... Harry just shrugged in response. "Okay." Kyoko said. "I'm sure I can do that, though it will likely take me more than just a couple of days." She told him.

"Alright." The green-eyed teen said as he took his device off his hand and handed it over to his sensei, who then placed it onto her table – she won't start working on it right away, after all.

"I'll ring you up when I have it ready." She said.

"Thank you, sensei." The young Potter replied with a nod. The blond scientist hummed something not really intelligible under her breath in response.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, Harry?" She asked then.

"No, sensei." The green-eyed teen shook his head. "Actually I have to go do some work myself. I still haven't finished writing my report on the things that happened during my time aboard of warship "Arthra" for captain Steinmetz." He confessed.

"Will you tell me this story in full sometime?" Kyoko was curious. Harry had already given her an overview of what had happened during the Book of Darkness incident when he gave her a videocall on the day after Reinforce's and the Wolkenritter's trial, but a lot of details had obviously been omitted.

"Of course." Harry promised.

**~/ *** \~**

Harry's fourth day back to Mid-Childa and Cranagan began with inspecting the progress the workers Chrono had hired for him had made with renovating his apartment. Namely, they had finally finished putting the new bathroom, kitchen and living room together. And the young Potter had to admit: despite having to work undertime, they had done a fantastic job and everything was looking to-notch.

Thanking the men for the work they had already done and handing them Chrono-approved designs for the rest of the rooms, Harry returned to the TSAB administrative complex in order to grab a bite at the Magitek Research Department's mess. Once done with his lunch, he dropped by his room in the hostel, before heading to one of the many parks in Cranagan for his 'scheduled' meeting with Megane-sensei.

"Hello, sensei." He greeted when he finally located the lavender-haired summoner.

"_Hello there, Harry._" She replied telepathically. Apparently not to wake up little Lulu, who was sleeping peacefully in her arms. "_Quint-chan said, you've brought some souvenirs for me from you mission. I'm really flattered by this, of course, but you really didn't have to._" The green-eyed teen just shrugged in response to that, before pulling a decorated wooden box full of high-quality tea from his bag. That was more or the only thing he had come up with that would be alright to gift to Megane-sensei, especially since she had just become a mother.

"_And this is for Lu-chan._" Harry added as he produced an extremely cute small white plush of something that looked like a big-headed anthropomorphic cat. It was probably too early for such a toy to be even remotely interesting to Lutecia, but in a couple of years... Apparently, the lavender-haired knight was sharp-set for cute things herself, given her own reaction to the toy.

"_Oh thank you, Harry!_" She said once she finished gushing over the plush. "_I'm sure Lulu will totally love this one when she gets a little older!_" The green-eyed teen just smiled in response, before getting all serious again:

"_There is one more thing I have here... It's probably for you as well, sensei._" He said while fishing something quite small out of an inner pocket of his bag. Raising an eyebrow, Megane nonetheless accepted that mysterious object as well. Taking a quick look at what it was, the lavender-haired knight raised her eyebrow even further: this miniature piece of hardware was certainly something rather unexpected. And while she had a few question on how Harry had come to own it floating around in her head, she didn't ask any of them, accepting this 'gift' with a silent nod instead.

"_So... Quint-chan says that you've been sent to assist with containing the Book of Darkness? Is that true, did they really send you on such a mission?_" The pretty summoner asked next, changing the topic.

**~/ *** \~**

Another five days later the workers were finally done with the renovations for Harry's apartment. And once the said teen made sure that everything was in order, he called knights Signum and Zafira up, asking for some help with sprucing the place up... Even then it took the three of them a couple of hours to make everything in the apartment thoroughly clean.

And that wasn't the end of the day either: there still were various little – and not so little – household essentials that they needed to buy for their new home. And food, as until now they all had been having their meals at the messes all the time. Not to mention actually moving their things from their current lodgings... By the time all that was dealt with it was quite late in the evening, thus the tired trio decided to postpone the house-warming party until tomorrow.

* * *

><p>Despite being quite tired out by the many troubles related to moving in into a new home, Signum had some troubles with drifting off to sleep... Actually, as a living magical program she didn't really <em>need<em> sleep per se, but it nevertheless became something like a habit that she embraced during the time she spend under mistress Hayate's care on Earth. And staying at the place she was supposed to call her home without her mistress being anywhere close was probably what made dozing off so hard for the pink-haired knight... And somehow her finally falling asleep so late in the night resulted in her also waking up pretty late next morning.

No, Signum definitely didn't sleep in or anything, but by the time she woke up, both Harry and Zafira were up already and, judging by the aroma coming from the kitchen the breakfast was either almost ready or already in progress.

A quick shower later, the General or Raging Fire donned her Ground Forces uniform – which was surprisingly comfortable, barely losing there even to the casual clothes mistress Hayate had picked for her back on Earth – before joining her two housemates in the kitchen, where Zafira was wolfing down a plateful of pancakes with whatever jam he had laid his hands on, while Harry was eating in a more relaxed way... And seeing that he was still wearing an apron, it looked like he had been the one to cook today's breakfast.

Some might have found the green-eyed teen's ability to cook – and be pretty good at that – rather surprising, but Signum merely shrugged at that. The Wolkenritter, after all, despite being created as a combat unit, had picked up many other skills over the millenniums of their existence. And out of the four of them only Shamal was unable to cook anything without burning it or whatever. At least that was so until mistress Hayate started teaching her... Well, Vita might have some troubles as well, but those would stem entirely from her short statue and would have nothing to do with actual skill...

The breakfast passed in relative silence as despite being cohabitants now, the young Potter and the two knights were little more than strangers. The Time will of course fix that, but right now... Anyhow, once the meal was over and the dishes were done, it was the time for Harry and Signum to leave as they were expected to show up in their respective units today. Zafira, on the other hand, had a day off from teaching at the Fourth Ground Forces Academy and would likely remain at the apartment, doing whatever he did when he was alone.

* * *

><p>By the time Harry returned home from his day of work, Zafira was already half done with preparing the festive dinner. And seeing how the guardian beast was currently the master of the kitchen, he decided to set up the videocalls instead: Chrono, Yuuno and Reinforce were still in the Infinite Library at the Bureau headquarters; Lindy and Fate were having the duty aboard of "Arthra"; while Nanoha, Hayate, Vita and Shamal all were in Uminari city – for all of them these videocalls would be the only way to participate in the house-warming party.<p>

Harry also though about 'inviting' his three mentors to the party, but eventually decided against it: Kyoko-sensei was practically living in her laboratory at the moment with how much work on device upgrading her superiors were dumping on her; Quint-sensei was due to leave on a mission tomorrow morning and too was busy as it is; finally, Megane-sensei had little Lulu to care about, making it very hard for her attend any social events...

Before long, Signum joined them and, once Zafira was done with the dinner, the party began... Well, calling it a 'party' might be too much, but, at least, everyone that side of the space bridge wished them stable and prosperous household, mutual understand and many other things in the same vein.

Afterwards, everyone separated into two big groups: the one consisted of the Wolkenritter, Reinforce and their mistress with Fate-chan and Nanoha-chan occasionally butting in. They had been conversing among themselves and the young Potter, of course, hadn't really listened in. He still learned that Reinforce was mostly done at the Infinite Library and would be coming to Mid-Childa on the day after tomorrow. Harry, Yuuno and the two Harlaowns formed the other 'circle'. And their conversation quickly turned into Lindy offering many advices on resolving the issues that would arise among the cohabitants sooner or later – being a captain of a patrol warship, the teal-haired lady had a lot of practical experience in dealing with those...

In the end, even if the 'party' that night wasn't all great on the fun side of things, it was still good. Harry had learned a few things about conflict resolving and got his reassurance about sharing the house with the Wolkenritter. Maybe he won't come to ever regret his sudden decision to invite them to live under his roof... And the knights themselves? A chance to talk to their beloved mistress Hayate left them noticeably more relaxed. And (even) easier to cohabitate with.

**~/ *** \~**

Since both Signum and Zafira had the duties they couldn't beg themselves off that day, it was up to Harry to introduce Reinforce into the 'villain central' as someone had jokingly called his household. That, and he was more or less the landlord here, so he'd have to be there regardless.

And while he knew when the newest resident of his house will be arriving, actually waiting for it made the young Potter feel like the time had slowed down to a crawl. So to occupy himself with something while he waited, Harry began thinking about, well, magic. And among many spells and whatnot he had already seen, the familiars definitely stood out as something he probably should research. After all, being an owl, even if a magical one, Hedwig won't be there with him forever, yet he just couldn't imagine losing her either – she was probably his first friend. And only one from his old life that was with him in this new one.

Yes, he will definitely have to look into the ways of familiar creation. But before that, it would probably be a good idea to gain a little bit more knowledge about the ways his quite unique magic system worked. After all, unlike the spells he had been playing with so far, the familiar creation ritual was something that he couldn't just try and try again till he eventually got it right. And he'd rather not hurt Hedwig or worse just because he was too hasty and didn't adapt the ritual to his magic properly...

His further thoughts on the matter were interrupted by someone – Reinforce – ringing his doorbell. Getting to the door swiftly, Harry opened it. And paused. It looked like the red-eyed beauty decided to change her style quite a bit over the last two days: aside from donning on the Ground Forces brown uniform, Reinforce now had her long silver hair made into a thick braid, instead of just letting them flow freely behind her like she used to... And while she didn't have the most threatening appearance before, now she was all but the avatar of cuteness.

"Um..." Harry managed after a pretty long pause. "Come in, please." He said finally, feeling very awkward at how the words just kept failing him.

**~/ *** \~**

About a week after moving in into his apartment, Harry decided that it was about time for him to pick up his training. This, of course, included learning how to use the new form of his device effectively. And given what this new form was, Signum was an obvious choice for a teacher there. When asked, the pink-haired Knight of the Sword saw no reason to deny his request and agreed to give him a few lessons on fighting with bladed weapons.

Of course, the young Potter wasn't going to abandon his training in the unarmed combat either. But right now Quint was away on whatever mission her superiors had given her, thus forcing him to either wait for her return or find himself a new, if temporary, sensei. And Harry, not knowing how long it will be before his purple-haired teacher is back, decided to follow the second route... The Luck was on his side again and guardian beast Zafira also agreed to teach him for a little bit.

Finally, the green-eyed teen needed to do something about his '**Lesser Aegis**' shield being useless at shielding him from anything even resembling a decently-powerful magical attack. For now, though, he decided to try tackling this on by himself as he felt that he was already abusing the knights' kindness. Not to mention that Reinforce was busy enough as it is with her new work for the Bureau while also trying to create a safe-to-use on the battlefield simulacrum of the Tome. And if his eyes weren't deceiving him, the silver-haired beauty was also trying to find a way to permanently delete the corrupted Defense Program from the Tome without sacrificing herself in the process. No, he shouldn't be bothering her with his comparatively-petty problems...

* * *

><p>By some chance, Zafira was the first one to find enough free time to give Harry a lesson. And, of course, this lesson began with a spar – the wolf-man needed to know what level his 'student' was at, after all... And even with his powers limited, the guardian beast had absolutely no troubles with trouncing the green-eyed teen, not that it was something entirely unexpected...<p>

And while the young Potter recovered from their mock battle, Zafira questioned him a bit about the 'style' he had been using. Mostly because the knight just couldn't outright recognize it, despite having witnessed and fought against hundreds of those. Then again, what Harry was using was not a proper style anyway, just some moves based on the **Shooting Arts** that worked for him.

"Alright." The blue-furred wolf-man summed up. "You are pretty good for someone who had adopted the Mid-Childan combat philosophy of bombarding your enemy from a distance. Yet in a melee fight any proper Belkan knight will wipe the floor with you." Harry nodded: he didn't really intend to use marital arts as his main means of attacking anyway. And Zafira knew that as well. "That said, there are a lot of things that could be improved about the way you fight. For one, you barely use your feet when a good hit with those greaves of yours can be quite devastating."

The incident where Quint-sensei had actually bent the shield strapped to his left arm with a single kick immediately came to Harry's mind. Still, not really knowing what to say there – especially since he himself wasn't sure why he barely used his feet in combat – the green-eyed teen simply nodded. Meanwhile, Zafira continued:

"That, however, isn't as much of a problem as your other asymmetry. You attack almost exclusively with your right hand and guard with your left one. I can see why it is so, given the designs of your device and your barrier jacket, but, nevertheless, it makes you predictable and, thus, easy to counter." The wolf-man explained.

"I see..." The young Potter said a bit thoughtfully. Now that Zafira had brought this to his attention, it indeed looked like a major problem with his fighting 'style'. What's more, Quint-sensei had never turned his mind to this. No, she was an excellent fighter and a good teacher; it's just her style, the **Shooting Arts**, which was build around the idea of taking the target down with one powerful attack, didn't make the symmetry of one's form truly important.

"Well, if you want to improve, I can help you fix these problems." As Harry nodded, the guardian beast continued: "Well then, we shall concentrate on teaching you to fight more symmetrically for now." He said. "Today's exercise will the following: you will be allowed to block only with your right hand and strike only with the left one."

This exercise quickly proved to be much harder than it sounded. Not only it went against what by now could as well be a conditioned reflex for Harry, but Zafira wasn't holding back all that much either. And much like his build would suggest, he was freakishly-strong...

* * *

><p>Two days later, it was the time for Harry's first lesson with Signum. And having only heard about it, the pink-haired swordswoman was understandably curious about the bladed upgrade of his device, something that even her stoic exterior couldn't really hide.<p>

"Shall we begin?" The Knight of the Sword asked, while changing her trusty Laevatein from its standby form of an odd necklace into a battle-ready form of a single-edged western straight sword.

"Phoenix Claw, set up!" The young Potter commanded meanwhile, changing his device into its base form, which remained mostly the same even after the upgrade. Though, the gauntlet got a bit thicker as it now had a loader and a boxy magazine holding seven cartridges on the underside. "**Assault form!**" The green-eyed teen commanded next. This caused the gauntlet gain a two feet long two-pronged sword-like blade and a rather narrow shield extending to a few inches past the elbow on its upper side.

"Hm..." Signum hummed. "A wristblade. Can't say I have much experience with these..." After a pause that lasted but a single moment, she continued: "Blades like these are used mostly for direct thrusts, which are not that different from punches, so Zafira might actually be a better teacher for you here. However, yours is big enough to be rather effective at slashing as well. Which, along with parrying is what I can teach you." Harry nodded. That sounded like an important thing to learn if he were to use this form of his device in actual combat.

"Parrying first, I guess?" The green-eyed teen asked.

"Indeed." Signum agreed. Normally she'd add that parrying a blow with one's blade's sharp edge was a bad idea, but in this particular case there was no need to: the very design of Harry's wristblade ensured that it won't be a problem. "Shall we get started?" She 'asked' while taking her stance. Gulping slightly as he remembered his sink-or-swim lesson with guardian beast Zafira two days ago, the young Potter got ready to do his best to defend himself...

**~/ *** \~**

Once he got a little used to his lessons with the two Cloud Knights, Harry finally returned to his attempts to improve... well, to fix his magical shield. Unfortunately, those weren't going very well so far: it looked like no matter what changes he applied to the spell matrix, his magical shield just couldn't block neither Mid-Childan nor Belkan spells well enough to actually be called a shield.

Another problem was the fact that he needed someone to cast a spell at him in order to see whether the changes he had made to his shield had the desired, or any at all, effect – he had discovered long ago that his shield stopped his own spells well enough even when weaker ones from the 'standard' systems went right through it.

That said, the problems with testing the modifications he had done to his shield spell and the lack of improvements brought by modifications he had tested was understandably frustrating for the green-eyed teen. As was the fact that he now had to use more and more complex equations in hopes that one of them will give the desired result: all the simpler ones he could have thought of were already tested. And failed... And, of course, when working with those more complex mathematics, the number of errors Harry kept making wasn't exactly small either.

"Damn!.." The young Potter swore – hopefully not too loudly – when his latest attempt failed to even produce a magical shield at all. At least this failure made it clear that it was not the solution he was looking for... A knock on his room's door, which wasn't even closed, drew his attention. Turning around, Harry saw that it was Reinforce who stopped in by his room.

"Everything alright?" She asked softly.

"Yeah." The green-eyed teen replied. "Just some problems with my spellcrafting." There was a short pause, before the silver-haired beauty spoke again:

"Do you need my help with it?" She offered. "I'm sure there is a way to make your shield work the way you want it to." Harry wasn't sure whether she had actually seen what he was working on or merely guessed correctly based on what had been his greatest weakness during the battle against the corrupted Defense Program. Either way, she probably still had her hands full without helping him with his own problems... Yet, right now he had troubles with finding a way of telling her that he'll be alright without it coming out wrong. That was probably a sign that he should call it a day and get some rest...

"Don't worry about that. I'll tackle this problem eventually." He said finally. There was a second-long pause, before Reinforce nodded.

"Alright." She said. "But if you feel you need my help, don't hesitate to ask. I still owe you a lot for what you have done for my master, my knights and myself."

"Thank you." Harry replied.

* * *

><p>That's all folks!<br>**Read** and **Review**!


End file.
